I attended a tremendous workshop on understanding the brain as it applies to EMDR recently.
During REM (rapid eye movements in the last stages of the sleep cycle where the brain consolidates memory) trauma may prevent memory from being processed in a direction that allows the intellect to manage instinctual responses. This is what occurs when all of us get “stuck” in something and find ourselves “looping” despite our best efforts to move on.
EMDR solves this problem.