Unlocking Healing: Why You Should Explore EMDR Therapy for Trauma & Chronic Migraines
Chronic pain and migraines can feel relentless, disrupting your work, relationships, and overall well-being. While traditional treatments focus on medication or physical therapies, research is uncovering a deeper link between trauma and chronic pain. If you’ve ever noticed that stress, anxiety, or past experiences seem to make your migraines worse, there’s a reason—trauma can rewire your brain and nervous system, keeping your body stuck in survival mode and amplifying pain signals.
But here’s the important part—before diving into therapy, it’s critical to get medically checked out first. Therapists aren’t doctors, and chronic migraines or pain should always be evaluated by a healthcare provider to rule out underlying medical conditions. Once you’ve got the all-clear, therapy can be a game-changer.
That’s where Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) comes in. Known for its success in treating trauma, EMDR is also gaining attention for its ability to reduce chronic pain and migraines by calming the nervous system and breaking the cycle between past stress and present pain. If pain has been running the show, it might be time to explore a new way forward—one that helps you heal from the inside out.
The Trauma-Pain Connection: How EMDR Eases Chronic Pain
Trauma isn’t just stored in memories—it’s stored in the body. If your nervous system is constantly in fight-or-flight mode due to unresolved trauma, it can keep pain signals turned up, making migraines and chronic pain conditions worse. Research in somatic psychology and neuroscience suggests that:
Past trauma can lead to chronic nervous system overactivation, increasing pain sensitivity.
Migraines and chronic pain often co-exist with PTSD and anxiety disorders.
Unprocessed trauma can create pain loops where the brain associates pain with past distress.
EMDR therapy helps break this cycle by guiding the brain to reprocess trauma without reliving it, allowing the nervous system to shift out of survival mode and into healing.
How EMDR Works for Migraines & Chronic Pain
If you suffer from migraines, you may have noticed that stress, anxiety, or even certain memories trigger them. That’s because your brain and nervous system play a huge role in how your body experiences pain. EMDR therapy helps by:
Reprocessing Trauma-Linked Pain Responses – Many people with migraines have stress-related pain triggers. EMDR helps reduce the emotional impact of these triggers, lowering pain sensitivity.
Calming the Nervous System – Chronic migraines often occur when the autonomic nervous system is dysregulated. EMDR can help restore balance, reducing migraine frequency and severity.
Releasing Stored Tension – Many migraine sufferers hold tension in the jaw, shoulders, and neck, which can trigger headaches. EMDR helps release stored physical tension by resolving the emotional distress that keeps the body locked in pain cycles.
The Progressive Approach to EMDR & Chronic Pain
While traditional EMDR works well for PTSD, The Progressive Approach to EMDR Therapy (Gonzalez & Mosquera, 2012) is ideal for individuals with chronic pain and complex trauma. This method takes a gentle, step-by-step approach to trauma healing, ensuring safety and stability before deeper trauma processing begins.
Additionally, Parts Work (Steele et al., 2017), based on Structural Dissociation Theory, helps clients integrate fragmented trauma responses, ensuring all aspects of the self contribute to healing. This approach is especially helpful for those whose pain is linked to past emotional wounds.
Why EMDR Therapy Could Be a Game-Changer for You
If you’ve been living with chronic migraines and traditional treatments haven’t worked, EMDR therapy may be the missing piece. Rather than just managing symptoms, EMDR gets to the root cause—unresolved trauma and nervous system dysregulation.
Working with a trauma-informed therapist trained in EMDR, Structural Dissociation Theory, and The Progressive Approach to EMDR ensures that you get the care and support you need to heal safely. Your brain and body deserve a break—and EMDR might be the key to finally getting one.
You don’t have to let chronic pain and migraines control your life. Healing is possible, and your brain has the power to rewire and reset. If you’re ready to break free from the pain-trauma cycle, I’d love to support you.
💆♀️ Start Your Healing Journey: www.healwithrevive.com
-References-
Afari, N., Ahumada, S. M., Wright, L. J., Mostoufi, S., Golnari, G., Reis, V., & Cuneo, J. G. (2014). Psychological trauma and functional somatic syndromes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Psychosomatic Medicine, 76(1), 2-11.
Hassett, A. L., & Williams, D. A. (2021). Non-pharmacological treatment of chronic widespread musculoskeletal pain. The Lancet, 397(10272), 2128-2139.
Marcus, D. A., Scharff, L., Turk, D. C., & Jacob, R. G. (2021). A double-blind provocative study of limbic dysfunction in chronic migraine. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 61(4), 563-574.
Seng, E. K., Rains, J. C., Nicholson, R. A., & Lipton, R. B. (2022). Chronic migraine and posttraumatic stress disorder: An epidemiologic study. Headache: The Journal of Head and Face Pain, 62(5), 623-632.
Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
