Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment designed to help people to process and recover from traumatic or adverse memories.
EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much like how the body recovers from physical trauma. When you have a cut, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it struggles to heal and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.
EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental healing processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound struggles to heal and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.
EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation such as tapping, bilateral sounds or buzzers) are used during one part of the session. After the therapist and client has determined which memory to target, we ask the client to hold different aspects of that event in mind and to use their eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the client begins to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.”
Unlike traditional talking therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies.
EMDR is an effective treatment for a variety of difficulties including:
- PTSD and Complex PTSD
- Phobias
- Low self-esteem
- Panic Disorder
- OCD
If you would like to learn more about EMDR and how it may help you, please contact us using the form below.
The Safe Haven Practice- CBT and EMDR Therapy in Odiham, Hampshire 