Professional Topics: Articles: Sound in EMDR and Other Processes

Bilateral Sound in EMDR, Visualization and Success

Use these guidelines with alternating bilateral sound.

Robert A. Yourell, LMFT

Use bilateral sound such as UpLevel and Personal Journey with these guidelines and exercises. Alternating bilateral sound is for stress management, deep relaxation, visualization body awareness processes and more. Experience a unique, free, bilateral audio meditation space here, and listen to free samples of our Sounds for Inner Space™ here.

We are born to feel balanced and find solutions. Resources within us can automatically help us do these things. Sometimes, we need help to activate these inner processes to resolve personal problems, to stop anxiety, or to meet a great personal challenge.

As a therapist, I have seen people make wonderful changes in their lives and personalities by doing mental exercises that restore, evoke and orchestrate these inner resources. I am impressed with the power of sound to make these exercises more effective.

Mental exercises with Psych Innovations sounds have helped problems such as these: An upcoming court appearance was making Mandy very anxious. Paul was sick of the tiresome arguments at home. Mary’s emotional reactions were making her too inflexible and were threatening her dreams for success.

Safety

If you become uncomfortable using the exercise or recording, stop. Some people find that before they can enjoy processes that can help them relax or increase awareness, they must get assistance from a therapist.

Do not drive or do any dangerous activity such as using a sharp object or a machine while listening to recordings that can help you relax.

No recording here is offered as a treatment of any medical or psychiatric condition. People use their minds with the intention of improving their well being. People use sounds such as music or voice to help in this. But no one should make claims as to exactly what these things will do for you. You are unique.

If you have or suspect that you may have a psychiatric condition, consult an appropriate mental health professional before listening to recordings that may cause relaxation or increased awareness, such as Psych Innovations recordings. Ask them if you are ready for such experiences.

Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or comments.

Access Your Inner Resources

Your inner resources normally keep you in balance and solve problems, but some experiences can leave these resources unable to fully do their job. This can cause you to feel stuck, anxious, or out of control.

I have been surprised at how much improvement so many people have gotten from a relatively small amount of time doing mental exercises. It troubles me to think of the millions of people who would be better off if they knew the right exercise for the problem that is holding them back. I want our families, schools and mental health professionals to help people understand and use these processes.

Inner resources include factors such as the brain's ability to activate all of its areas and to allow its regions to communicate fully with one another. Inner resources include an effective self-image, creative problem solving, confidence necessary to be assertive, the ability to regain full functioning after a troubling experience, and freedom from healthy psychological defenses that can allow us to learn and interact meaningfully.

For example, many people who have experienced psychological trauma are left with less activity in some areas of their brains. Without a brain scan, they would not know that, but they certainly know if they are dissatisfied with their success and ability to sleep, or are troubled by panic attacks.

Another good example is that of a person with attention deficit disorder. While mental exercises are unlikely ever to cure ADD, the psychological hardship and negative mental habits that can result from being a person with ADD can come a long way with the help of inner processing.

EMDR-Inspired Sound, Bilateral Sound, and Brain Hemisphere Synchrony

The definition of EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, explains that EMDR is a method of psychotherapy that has a number of steps requiring the help of a therapist. This means that you could say there is no such thing as self-EMDR. However, many people who have experienced EMDR come to think of the core experience as being one they can derive on their own.

Because I don't want to abuse the term EMDR, I call these methods "EMDR-inspired" and the core experience that people seek "processing" or "reprocessing."

Reprocessing happens when you experience a state of mind that allows you to change a negative reaction or emotional symptom that has been stuck for some reason. The experience often feels like a deep mental release or reclaimed freedom. Sometimes people even describe it as a spiritual experience.

The reprocessing experience can come from focusing on a disturbing feeling or memory while doing something to activate both sides of the brain. One way to activate both brain hemispheres is to experience a sound that moves repeatedly from ear to ear. I call this bilateral sound. Musicians or audiophiles might call it a panning sound.

Therapies and personal development processes that get the left and right brain hemispheres working together have been around for some time. As a therapist who studied and used hypnosis, mental processing, body psychotherapy, and other methods since the 1970’s, I noticed that dramatic improvements often came when the therapy method had a way to promote collaboration of the brain hemispheres. I believe this is a key ingredient needed to bring out the potential of many approaches to therapy and personal development.

Many people in the field of biofeedback or neurofeedback believe it comes from hemispheric synchrony, where activity and frequency of both brain hemispheres is in a close relationship.

Professional Counseling, Therapy and Psychiatry

I don’t mean to say self-use of inner processing is a magic wand for every problem. Most people would benefit from time with the right psychotherapist, even if they don’t have a psychiatric disorder. Even problems that make a jump in progress through a mental process often have other aspects that take much more work to resolve.

Consider these reasons for a good assessment and sessions with the right mental health professional:

1) The person and those around them may not understand the problem or the available resources well enough.

2) The problems may be the kind that can’t be untangled from inside, and require a dedicated person as a guide.

3) The problems may be too serious or immediate.

4) The problems may require referral for medical treatment because of a physical problem such as a metabolic disorder that a medical person would know to investigate. For example, some depressed people have thyroid trouble, but don’t know it.

5) Progress will be faster and have more scope with specialized professional guidance.

A Key Ingredient in Reprocessing: State Shifting

There is another important missing ingredient that can make personal development or therapy more effective. It has to do with the person’s state of mind. In psychological methods that tend to gain a rapid improvement in symptoms, and that tend to cause a long-lasting improvement, I saw another pattern. They begin by having the client tune into the problem, and then shift to a more balanced or positive state of mind and body within a fairly short period of time.

TFT (Thought Field Therapy), EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) and EMDR are examples of therapy methods that bring hemispheric synchrony and state shifting together.

Previous therapies that began getting results that appeared to resemble those of methods such as EMDR, TFT, and EFT did not appear to be as consistent in doing so. I came to believe that the difference was they had not systematically applied the two ingredients of brain hemisphere activation and state shifting.

Brainwave Entrainment: Binaural Beat and Pulsing Sound

Your brainwave frequencies help produce your state of mind. A visual or sound pulse that matches a brainwave frequency encourages your brain to produce more of that frequency. This is called entrainment.

Entrainment of brainwave frequencies is used for meditation, relaxation, and even alertness. The Personal Journey recording includes a brainwave frequency that fosters a meditative state of mind. It is a low frequency that is good for (among other things) creative problem solving while on the border between consciousness and sleep.

Some people feel that reprocessing a painful issue is easier with a low entrainment frequency such as the one in Personal Journey.

The Recordings

I have much experience using recordings for EMDR-inspired sound processes, and was the first to develop a sound for this purpose. That sound, UpLevel, is used around the world.

The Psych Innovations recordings that provide bilateral sound are UpLevel, Personal Journey and EvoLucid. These recordings provide a stable sound environment that allows the listener to use them for the length of time they prefer. They do not have a melody, so the listener will not tire of them after repeated listening. Each recording has different qualities discussed at PsychInnovations.com.

We have received many wonderful compliments and stories about our bilateral recordings. Another source of such sound is Neurotek, which provides machines such as the AudioScan™ and EyeScan™ that are expensive compared to our recordings, and which provides simpler souns with little esthetic quality. David Grand's BioLateral™ sounds have been compared with our bilateral sounds, but they do not have the compelling type of stereo (side to side) shifting quality that we value. Numerous people have written to us about their preference for the qualities of our bilateral sounds (see left sidebar for testimonials).

To Use Psych Innovations Bilateral Sound

First step: Focus on the first step of the exercise before actually listening to the recording. This can make a real difference, probably because it helps you get your initial mental focus, and thus increases the desirable state shift.

Stereo: For best results, use stereo headphones on a stereo unit. External stereo speakers will work almost as well, but the stereo separation is not as compelling.

Volume: Play the recording at a low volume, a good bit less than you might use for music listening. This prevents the sound from being too dominant, and distracting, and makes your mental processing more effective. As your senses open, the recording may seem to increase in volume. Adjust the volume for comfort.

Attention: Sometimes it can be helpful to follow the sound from side to side with attention.

Non-Effort: When a mental exercise tells you to just pay attention to something, practice doing this without trying to control anything. This helps you activate inner resources that are at their best when you are not trying to do anything.

One of the most helpful parts of the mental exercises is when you focus your awareness on a feeling. With bilateral sound, as the feeling eases, it may give way to other feelings that are very valuable to target with your awareness. It is easier to sense those feelings when you are not mentally busy. That is why the exercises shift from an activity such as mental rehearsal, to periods of simply paying attention. Because inner resources are mostly automatic, these awareness periods are very important for the inner processing.

Safety: If you become uncomfortable using the exercise or recording, stop. Some people may not be able to enjoy processes that can help them relax or increase awareness until they get assistance from a therapist. If you have or suspect that you may have a psychiatric condition, consult an appropriate mental health professional before listening to Psych Innovations recordings or any other recordings that may cause relaxation or increased awareness. Psych Innovations does not offer any recordings for treatment of any medical or psychiatric condition.

Time: Allow yourself time for your mind to wander or provide images, ideas or new awareness during the exercise. Inner resources of yours that are blocked or dormant can need some time for you to foster them. The creative problem solving intelligence of your subconscious mind can become more useful to you as you come to recognize it and practice eliciting it.

Users find that at a certain point they may simply feel finished. That’s a fine time to stop. It’s as if the mind says, “That’s it for now, time to stop.”

Otherwise, you may stop the recording when you complete an exercise, or continue for a while because you are enjoying a state of mind that feels productive or restful. For free-form processes, you may want to set a timer.

Simply Relaxing: With the exception of Personal Journey (which includes a relaxing brainwave sound), it usually isn’t helpful to use bilateral sound just to relax without any guidelines. Use bilateral sound recordings with exercises such as those described in this article.

Other processes: You can use alternating bilateral sound to enhance processes or mental exercises from sources other than this article or PsychInnovations.com. Bilateral sound helps with exercises for reprocessing, deep relaxation, visualization, mental rehearsal, and body awareness. You can even use it along with recorded guided processes. (However if the recording has music, it may be out of tune with the bilateral sound recording.)

You can use two players both connected to one set of headphones with a “Y” adapter. Staff at any electronics store can assist you with this simple connection.

“Self-EMDR” Sound: If you know EMDR, you will find that the bilateral sound recordings are perfect for EMDR-inspired processes, or for guiding others in such processes. See the “EMDR-Inspired Self Reprocessing” exercise.

Regular use has helped many people continue or enhance their own personal growth. Some EMDR therapists recommend that their clients do this in some cases to become less vulnerable to emotional triggers, or for other personal growth work between or after the therapy sessions.

Some therapists listen to alternating bilateral sounds such as UpLevel before sessions, or even during sessions along with clients. They tell me it helps them stay tuned in to the client and be more creative. When I do not quite feel that I am in the right state of mind to conduct EMDR, hypnosis or to work with an especially sensitive person, I do this for one to five minutes just before the session. It makes a dramatic difference for me.

The Processes

You may use any Psych Innovations bilateral (stereo panning) recording, or any other bilateral recording intended for reprocessing with these exercises.

Unless you have experience with deep relaxation, visualization or awareness processes, do these exercises in the order suggested, and no more than one a day until you have completed the series. Set an alarm or timer so you can adhere to the time limits. There are more exercises and ideas at PsychInnovations.com.

Theta Flow

The first time you do this process, limit yourself to five minutes. Personal Journey is especially good with this exercise, because it includes a theta brainwave binaural entrainment frequency, and a very light bilateral sound. You can use this exercise to make sure you are comfortable with your recording and bilateral sound, and as a relaxation exercise. People typically do a relaxation exercise for five to twenty minutes. This is not a reprocessing exercise.

If you become uncomfortable, stop and re-read the cautions on page one.

1. For two minutes, pay attention to the sounds. (If you are using Personal Journey, attend to the warbling sound that resembles ringing crystal goblets. Notice how it gradually speeds and slows.)

2. For another three minutes, let your mind drift freely without focusing on anything.

3. Remove the headphones and relax for a while.

Energy Balance: Body Awakening

For this process, the term "energy" actually means anything you feel in your body. This includes any sense of warmth, tingling, vibration, flow, aliveness or emotion.

1. Scan your body with your mind. Notice where you feel the most and least energy in your body. If you draw a blank, notice obvious feelings such as the air moving through your nose, the feeling of sitting or lying on the surface you are on, etc.

2. Notice the area in your body where you are the least aware of anything. If it's hard to choose, select any area in your back.

3. Notice where your not-very-feeling area meets an area in your body where you feel something (energy, or something obvious.) In other words, just like you can visit the boundary between two countries, focus your mind on the boundary between the more energized or feeling area, and the less energized or less feeling area.

4. Notice another area of feeling or energy that meets the not-so-feeling area. Focus on where these areas meet, just like you did for the first meeting or boundary area.

5. Imagine that you can place your awareness on both of those meeting places. This is like focusing on the boundaries on two sides of a country that has a country on each side of it, when the country in the middle has it’s lights turned off.

6. Invite those meeting places to soften up, invite them to allow the energy or feeling from the feeling areas to flow across the not-so-feeling areas. Keep inviting this and watch what happens.

7. If nothing happens after three minutes, end the exercise or simply relax for three minutes before ending the exercise. (And try it again another day.)

8. If you begin to get energy or feeling into the area, continue as long as you like. When you feel ready, invite the energy to circulate through your body. Invite it to give you a feeling of balance throughout your body.

9. Imagine that some of this energy expands from your body to form a well-knit wetsuit (like surfers wear.) Imagine that it can hold your energy in just the right shape to help you feel balanced. Imagine it sends energy into all your organs and bones, which focus and circulate it through your body.

10. Enjoy this (for three minutes the first time you do it) until you feel finished. Then remove the headphones and relax for a while.

Solution Seeding: Unconscious Resources

This exercise is intended to help you program your subconscious mind to work on a problem in the background while you do other activities. It elicits the resources of both brain hemispheres to generate intuitive, creative ideas and insights.

1. Before listening to the recording, select a problem to work on. Review the details: your desires, discomforts, and resources that may pertain to the problem.

2. Listen to the recording for one minute while you focus on the problem, and the side to side movement of the sounds. Don't engage in any willful mental activity or problem solving. Let any thoughts, feelings or images simply flow through your mind without engaging them.

3. Notice how you can shift you awareness from thoughts you have about the problem, to feelings you have about it. Shift back and forth for one minute.

4. (Skip this step the first time through this exercise.) Ask yourself, "What would be the best way I could feel, that would being out the best in me for this problem, whatever the answer may be." Search for any hint of that feeling and invite it to come to the foreground and amplify. Focus on that feeling for one minute.

5. Ask your mind to give you an image that somehow comes from the problem. Don't push it, just invite it and wait.

6. If one comes, notice everything you can about it. If no image comes, relax and end the exercise when you wish.

7. Invite the image to gradually change into an image that will somehow be more useful to you. Don't push it, just invite it and wait.

8. If it shifts, notice the details. If it doesn't shift, ask your subconscious to create a good shift in how you understand the problem, and to do this in the background as you go about your day. Do the exercise again and you are likely to see progress.

9. Allow your mind to drift in the background tones for a little while.

10. Remove the headphones and trust that your subconscious mind will continue to work on the problem in the background.

EMDR-Inspired Self-Reprocessing

This is a basic reprocessing exercise. Done regularly, however, it may provide more progress than you would expect. Read it through a couple of times before doing it.

1. Do not start listening to the recording until are instructed to (in step four). However, you should listen to make sure in advance that the headphones are playing, that the volume is low, and that both sides are alternating. The player must be able to play in stereo (allowing the sound to pan from side to side). This way, you will be prepared to put the headphones on and begin listening.

2. Select a “target” for your awareness. It can be a mildly troubling memory such as a minor embarrassment or irritation, it can be a physical tension from stress, or a feeling of being stressed, impatient or ashamed. Do not select anything too serious or disturbing, or anything connected with experiences that were traumatic or were very hard on your self esteem.

3. Focus your awareness on the target with no expectation or purpose in mind. If you find yourself doing more than that, simply stop and pay attention to the target.

4. Begin listening to the recording. Spend about thirty seconds following the sound with your awareness while, as best you can, keeping the target in your awareness as well.

5. Mentally scan your body and notice any changes. If the first target has come to feel more intense, go back and repeat the two-steps of following the sound while paying attention to the target as in the last step, and then scanning your body, until the sensation is less intense.

However, if you think you may become too uncomfortable, or you don’t sense that the target will become less intense, then end the exercise and take some time to relax. In the future, select a less disturbing target.

6. Once the target feels less intense, or you simply feel finished, end the exercise and give yourself some time to contemplate the experience.

7. After you have done this exercise twice, add these steps before ending the exercise: See if there is another target (thought, memory or sensation) that has come forward and seems to be related to the first target. Make this your new target and focus on the sound as in steps four and five.

8. Spend a minute imagining what it might be like if you were in the perfect state of mind to cope most effectively with the issue according to the highest values and compassion.

9. Process any targets that arise from the previous step just as you have the other targets as in steps four and five.

10. If you wish, allow your mind to relax and flow. When you are ready, end the exercise and give yourself some time to contemplate the experience.