Ayleen Birgit Scheffler-Hadenfeldt - EMDR for Babies: A parents guide for your babys first year of life

Disclaimer: This book has been carefully researched and prepared. Nonetheless, no responsibility shall be taken for the correctness of the content; all information is subject to change. The Author takes no responsibility for any potential damage or consequences arising from the content.

Life assumes meaning solely through love.

Hermann Hesse

Bibliographic Information from Der Deutschen Bibliothek: The German National Library catalogues this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed information can be found at http://dnb.ddb.de.

ISBN 978-3-7386-9831-2

1st edition 2015 ISBN 9783738698312

2015 Dr. rer. pol. Ayleen Birgit Scheffler-Hadenfeldt

Manufacture and publishing: BoD Books on Demand GmbH, Norderstedt.

All rights reserved, in whole or in part, including the reprinting of extracts, photomechanical reproduction, use of images, and translation.

Cover image and photos: Relevant global licences exist for professional photos. Any other images have been used with the kind consent and permission of parents or guardians.

I would dearly like to thank my partner Sren Lilienthal and my friend Ines Eckthaler for proofreading this guide and providing further suggestions.

Berlin, January 2014

Ayleen Scheffler-Hadenfeldt

A flower needs sun to become a flower.

A human being needs love to become a human being.

Phil Bosmans

Dear parents,

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a method used to process emotions and memories, with which you can resolve early childhood issues and optimally encourage your baby's healthy development.

EMDR is an effective and simple technique that is easy to learn and has a completely natural effect. The positive effects of EMDR are based on stimulating both halves of your babys brain, through touch, hearing and sight.

By using EMDR it is possible to release and resolve emotional blockages, creating a sense of mental and physical relaxation. You have the opportunity to free your baby permanently from distressing feelings, and thus support his or her wellbeing.

Give your baby a good start in life with EMDR and enjoy a wonderful time together. I wish you all the very best.

Yours, Ayleen Scheffler-Hadenfeldt

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) was originally a particularly effective psychotherapeutic technique used to process traumatic experiences by means of bilateral stimulation. Bilateral stimulation simply means alternately stimulating the left and right halves of the brain.

Francine Shapiro discovered this method by accident on a stroll in the park. Upon moving her eyes back and forth, she noticed clear relief in her anxiety and depressive thoughts. EMDR has now been internationally recognised as a scientific method in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorders in adults. []

Today, however, different applications of EMDR have been tested, for example to treat anxiety disorders, or relapses in chronic alcoholics. []

Since the end of the 1990s, the EMDR method originally developed for adults has also been expanded to treat children: there are studies that are very promising in this area. []

In summary, EMDR is still a fairly new treatment method, but so successful that it is very quickly spreading and finding use in an increasing number of fields. This guide is intended to demonstrate how you personally can use it to encourage your baby's development.

As a non-medical psychotherapy practitioner, I have plenty of experience with EMDR both personally and in years of application among my clients. I have further developed the original EMDR technique by Francine Shapiro for you and your baby. This parental guide is therefore a very valuable and easy-to-use aid for assisting your baby through his or her first year of life.

EMDR is such an effective method that it can support your baby's development in many respects equally. For example, EMDR can help to resolve common problems in the first year of your childs life and also systematically enables you to develop his or her perception skills.

Birth is the first great stress experienced by your baby, and not every baby processes this well. As a recognised method of trauma therapy, this modified version of EMDR helps to resolve any existing birth-related trauma straight after the event. One possible explanation for its effectiveness is that it mimics REM sleep (Rapid Eye Movement) in its eye movements.

REM sleep is a phase characterised by rapid eye movements, hence the name. Most dreams take place in this particular phase. Babies start to dream even before birth, in their mothers womb. Later, they dream for about 50% of their time asleep, whilst adults only dream for about 20%. Although the precise mechanism of EMDR is still unknown, it is thought that EMDR aids the processing of traumata (e.g. the trauma of birth) in a similar way to our dream mode.

Furthermore, it is supposed that REM sleep represents internal stimulation, which encourages mental development. In this respect, it is likely that EMDR also encourages mental development.

Screaming babies can move parents to despair and cause sleepless nights and who is then able to maintain a process of continuous loving bonding i.e. a loving parent-child relationship?

When apparently nothing seems to help, EMDR provides a simple method to calm your baby by releasing stressful feelings and generating deep relaxation. Freed from the endless screaming and tension, your love for your baby can then flow freely again and heal the disrupted bonding process, that is to say the strained parent-child relationship. One possible explanation for the liberating effect of EMDR comes from NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).

NLP alters processes in the brain with the aid of language. It is a collection of communication techniques and methods used to modify mental processes. It is known that certain eye movement patterns appear when we cogitate and recall memories, which may possibly explain the liberating and processing effect of EMDR.

Many parents today are afraid of the common diagnosis of Attention Deficit Disorder, with or without the Hyperactivity element (ADHD/ADD). ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) is a behavioural disorder that encompasses inattentiveness, impulsive behaviour and hyperactivity, whilst ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) involves inattentiveness and impulsive behaviour without hyperactivity. To that effect, initial observations give hope that EMDR for babies may be a way of preventing ADHD or ADD in later years.

It is thought that both halves of the brain are synchronised through EMDR's method of bilateral stimulation i.e. both halves clock in at the same speed, so to speak. EMDR encourages the exchange of information between the two halves, which can prevent developmental disorders.

However, independently of scientific research into the positive effects of EMDR (which to date only exists in sufficient amounts concerning adults), from experience EMDR is a natural method that works via sight, hearing and touch. Astoundingly simple yet target-oriented, EMDR helps to stimulate your baby and thus encourages development.