EMDR Therapy

What is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based therapeutic technique aimed at recalibrating the brain’s response to negative or traumatic memories. It was originally developed for trauma but is now used to treat a variety of mental health conditions including anxiety, phobias and depression.  EMDR is beneficial for treating:

• complex trauma and PTSD

• anxiety

• stress

• depression

• phobias and panic disorders

During EMDR sessions, the therapist directs bilateral stimulation through eye movement, sound, or tactile stimulation. This method helps people to move through overwhelming, negative feelings in order to process stuck, traumatic memories in a way that trusts their own innate ability to heal.  In time these strong and negative associations begin to lose their intensity, allowing people to move through them more easily.

Traumatic or negative experiences can leave a lasting impact on our brain and our ability to cope with everyday life. EMDR can help process these traumatic events through bilateral stimulation so you can stop feeling stuck in the past.  It’s a safe and evidence-based approach to therapy that can be integrated with other somatic approaches to therapy such as neurofeedback, mindfulness and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy.  EMDR accelerates your recovery from trauma when done at the right time in your healing process.

EMDR is an eight-phase process administered by a specially trained psychotherapist. It is grounded in the theory that traumatic memories can cause ongoing anxiety and stress if left unprocessed or improperly stored in the neural networks of the brain.

Experts believe that engaging in bilateral stimulation, in the form of eye movements, tapping or alternating sounds, while recalling a traumatic memory gives the brain a chance to properly process the memory and store it in the appropriate neural networks. Eventually, the traumatic memory should become less upsetting and less intrusive in everyday life.