WHAT IS IT
What is EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an evidence-based and highly effective way to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and many other issues including anxiety, panic, depression, attachment issues, and more. It can also be used to improve relaxation and mindfulness skills.
EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference.
It is often assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. However, EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward better mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound lingers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.
Often, we are stuck because we are living with coping strategies we developed at an earlier time in life. As our life changes, these old patterns stick with us even when we don’t need them anymore.
We also tend to hold onto old messages about our worth, competence, needs, and value. Some of these were told us, others we interpreted.
EMDR allows us to rewrite the script and break free from stubbornly held beliefs and patterns. It’s a remarkable tool that has helped many people be freed up from the past to enjoy a more fulfilling life
HOW IT WORKS
Does EMDR Therapy really work?
Studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. One study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy. Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 25 years.
ABOUT THE SESSIONS
What happens in an EMDR session?
EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, he or she will ask the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. or using bilateral tapping.
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 clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meanings of painful events are transformed on an emotional level.
Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The effect is that clients finish EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once unbalanced them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all strong indicators of emotional health and resolution.
TESTIMONIALS
What Our Clients Say
“The family therapy was straight forward. Louise’s approach supports her philosophy of “brief therapy” in that if you engage in the process, and follow the recommendations for “homework” outside of therapy sessions, you see rapid and positive change. She doesn’t take sides when it comes to family therapy. We are now communicating much better in our family.”
“I was skeptical about going for EMDR. It sounded weird but seeing how another guy at the base improved by going, made me give it a try and it surprised me. I can now talk about my trauma without having to relive it. Just the freedom from nightmares and flashbacks alone has made it more than worthwhile.”
“Being in a different kind of therapy environment with the horses allowed me to move toward my wife in a different kind of more positive way. I moved in and out of the space with my wife and the horses and explored the effects of this. I felt compassion and hope in there.”
