Equestrians don’t often think of riding accidents as trauma, but that is exactly what they are. They are dangerous or frightening events in which the individual is powerless, fears for her life or physical safety, and where escape seems impossible. This is the definition of trauma. Riding accidents impact our brains the same way as car accidents, assault or natural disasters.
Whether you hit your head and sustain a concussion or not, you can experience emotional and cognitive changes after a traumatic accident. Seeking guidance from a trauma therapist can help you reduce the impact of the trauma on your brain. One tool therapists use is called EMDR therapy (Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy), which was designed to help individuals desensitize their brains to trauma experiences so they can live their lives fully and return to a state of well-being.
Trauma memories are stored differently in the brain than other memories. They remain available at all times in order to keep us on high alert for more danger. Because of this, we are easily re-triggered by anything in our environments that remind of us the trauma – like riding. EMDR therapy can help your brain to process and store trauma memories as if they were any other everyday memory. It works very much the same way as your brain does on its own during the REM sleep phase. Your eyes move back and forth across your visual field while you dream. When this happens, your brain is processing memories, images and events, and storing them appropriately in either short-term memory, long-term memory or the trauma memory category. Most of our memories are sorted into the first two categories each night.