The Diary Of A CEO with Steven Bartlett

Most Replayed Moment: Can Eye Movements Heal Trauma? Bessel Van Der Kolk Explains EMDR Therapy!

September 19, 2025

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  • Trauma significantly impacts the brain by hyperactivating threat detection centers like the periaqueductal gray and amygdala, while simultaneously shutting down areas responsible for cognitive processing, timekeeping, and self-awareness, leading to a state of reliving the past as the present. 
  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy, which involves bilateral stimulation like eye movements, can help individuals process traumatic memories by reactivating pathways between brain regions responsible for self and body awareness, allowing for the distinction between past and present experiences. 
  • While EMDR has shown significant efficacy in treating adult-onset trauma, early childhood trauma is more complex and resistant to treatment due to its deep imprint on identity formation. 

Segments

Trauma’s Brain Impact
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(00:00:33)
  • Key Takeaway: Trauma causes the brain’s threat detection system to be constantly active, while shutting down areas crucial for rational thought and perspective.
  • Summary: The discussion begins by estimating the prevalence of trauma, then delves into how trauma affects the brain, specifically highlighting the overactivation of the periaqueductal gray and amygdala, and the shutdown of the insula and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, leading to a loss of time perception and a feeling of being in constant danger.
Understanding Triggers
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(00:04:40)
  • Key Takeaway: Triggers are not high-level cognitive responses but rather elementary, visceral reactions stemming from a hypersensitive amygdala, akin to a dog’s persistent fear.
  • Summary: The conversation clarifies the concept of being ’triggered,’ explaining it as a more elementary response than higher-level anxiety, comparing it to a dog that remains fearful long after the perceived threat has passed, and emphasizing the amygdala’s role as a hypersensitive smoke detector.
Brain Scans of Trauma
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(00:05:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Brain scans during trauma show extreme activation on the right side (feeling part) and shutdown on the left (cognitive part), with key areas for timekeeping going offline.
  • Summary: A brain scan of someone reliving a car accident is analyzed, illustrating how the right posterior brain (temporal parietal junction) becomes highly activated, while the left side shuts down, and the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (timekeeper) goes offline, causing the individual to lose their sense of perspective and time.
EMDR Therapy Explained
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(00:10:25)
  • Key Takeaway: EMDR therapy, through bilateral stimulation, helps the brain distinguish between past traumatic events and the present by reactivating pathways that restore a sense of time and self.
  • Summary: The discussion shifts to EMDR therapy as a treatment for trauma, with the speaker recounting their initial skepticism and eventual realization of its effectiveness. They explain how EMDR, by facilitating eye movements during recall of traumatic experiences, helps the brain create new associative processes and distinguish past from present, leading to significant symptom reduction.