Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)

 

EMDR is an extensively researched and effective psychotherapy method that has been proven to help people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorders. It has been widely endorsed as an effective therapy by many organizations and is considered to be one of the gold standards of trauma treatment today. It does not require talking in detail about the distressing issue or completing homework between sessions. Rather than focusing on changing your emotions, thoughts, or behaviors associated with the distressing event, EMDR allows your brain to resume its natural healing process. It is designed to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain. For many clients, EMDR can be completed in fewer sessions than other psychotherapies. If you are interested in trying EMDR, it is important that you speak with your psychotherapist about your interest as not everyone is a good fit for this type of psychotherapy.

  • Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (alarm signal), the hippocampus (helps with learning), and the prefrontal cortex (analyzes and controls behavior/emotion). While some traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved on their own, some may not be effectively processed without outside assistance.

    Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, freeze, or fawn instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create an overwhelming feeling of being back in that moment or of being “frozen in time.” EMDR helps the brain process these memories and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered but the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response from the original event is resolved.

    More information on EMDR can be found on the EMDRIA website: www.emdria.org