Prince Harry agreed to take part in a process called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing or EMDR therapy on camera for his new mental health series, The Me You Can't See.
The Duke of Sussex sat down with Oprah Winfrey, who is his co-producer for this documentary, to explain what this process is all about. Harry said that he has always wanted to try varieties of "healing or curing" people of their mental health struggles. He said he has an open mind about the therapies as someone who has been seeking professional help since 2017.
Four years ago, Harry opened up that he had to seek professional help because he couldn't understand the negative feelings he was going through. These had been deep-seated feelings due to the death of his mother when he was almost a teenager.
Sanja Oakley, a psychotherapist, helped Harry with the EMDR session on camera for The Me You Can't See. Harry said that this kind of therapy helps him deal with feelings of helplessness and being hunted. The royal opened up that he experiences these feelings "every time," and can be common for people dealing with post traumatic stress disorder.
During a basic EMDR session, the patient will need to access memory and process this in their mind. While doing so, they will be asked to track the hands of the therapist using their eyes. The therapist's hands will move back and forth, or left and right to the field of vision of the patient.
According to practitioners, this helps trigger rapid eye movement (REM). REM usually happens during sleep, when the brain is processing memories that bring disturbing feelings. In the case of EMDR, the patient is able to process the negative thoughts. However, if there are no therapists around, the patient may still keep doing EMDR by simply moving their eyes for 25 to 35 times when they are under stress, coupled with deep breathing. The whole procedure takes 40 minutes.
However, in 2000, a study on the National Library of Medicine stated that EMDR might be considered pseudo-science. A few studies between 2001 to 2003 also indicated the same conclusions.
Meanwhile, Prince Harry and Winfrey's new show, The Me You Can't See, has started its run on Apple TV+. The series has been in the making since 2019 but had some production delays due to the pandemic crisis. Also sitting as guests are popstar Lady Gaga, actress Glenn Close and the son of Robin Williams.
