What is EMDR?      

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an interactive therapy that treats psychological stress. It is especially helpful for trauma and PTSD, and is often helpful in treating depression, anxiety, and other common emotional problems.

How does it work?

EMDR is very different from traditional “talk therapy”. To understand it, let’s take a brief look at how the brain processes trauma.

What happens in the brain

When you experience trauma, several areas of your brain interact to manage the memory and promote healing. When everything works correctly, your brain resolves the trauma and stores the memory in a neurologically organized fashion. You remember it as a past event.

Occasionally, however, your brain stores the memory in a neurologically disorganized fashion. It then remains “stuck” in short-term memory, where your natural fight/flight/freeze instincts are continually re-triggered whenever you recall the trauma. This causes an overwhelming sensation of being being “stuck” in that moment in time, reliving the emotions as if they are still occurring in the present moment. This response is known as Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder, or PTSD.

EMDR therapy promotes healing by using therapist-directed eye movements to cause the brain to reprocess a traumatic memory so that it no longer triggers the natural “fight/flight/freeze” instinct. It is thought that mimicking the Rapid Eye Movements of REM sleep “jump-starts” the brains natural process of processing events, as it is thought to do during normal sleep.

I don’t like talking about it!

With EMDR, you don’t have to talk in detail about the trauma like you would in traditional “talk therapy”. Instead, EMDR allows the brain to re-start and complete its natural healing process without a lot of talking.

Can EMDR help me?

If you are struggling with traumatic memories and/or PTSD, especially if you find it difficult to talk about the trauma, you can probably benefit greatly from EMDR therapy! While EMDR is most often used for treating PTSD and trauma, trained EMDR therapists use the technique to treat a wide range of challenges (in clients of all ages), including…

Abuse • Anxiety • Bipolar disorder • Chronic Illness • Depression • Dissociative disorders • Eating disorders • Grief / Loss • Medical issues • Pain • Panic attacks • Performance anxiety • Personality disorders • Phobias • PTSD • Sexual assault • Sleep disturbance • Stress • Substance abuse • Trauma • Violence

What are the sessions like?

EMDR therapy is organized into eight phases (including history, treatment planning, preparation, assessment, EMDR treatment sessions, and evaluation), and averages around twelve 60-90 minute sessions. EMDR may be used independently or in combination with standard talk therapy.

During the treatment sessions…

you will focus on specific target memories, images, emotions, and bodily sensations of stress while following your therapist’s directions concerning eye movements and/or other bilateral stimulations (sounds, tapping, etc.)

Periodically, your therapist will direct you to pause and notice where your thoughts and feelings go during the process. You will then refocus and resume the process. If you experience distressing symptoms during the process, your therapist will help bring you back into the moment and walk you through self-soothing techniques.

Several factors, including the controlled, calm, and safe environment of the therapy office, helps you expose yourself to and process your traumatic memories without experiencing the strong emotional reaction. Over time (often much less time than CBT would require) the memory is reprocessed and stored in a neurologically organized place where it no longer triggers the “in-the-moment” PTSD reaction you may have lived with for many years. You don’t forget the trauma, but it becomes something that once happened to you rather than something that you re-live every time you think of it.

In other words, you heal.

How effective is EMDR?

Multiple studies have shown EMDR to be an effective treatment—with both short- and long-term benefits—for PTSD and traumatic stress, and for the associated symptoms of anxiety, depression, delusions, hallucinations, and psychosis.

Benefits have also been shown to be more effective and longer-lasting than in standard care therapies.

In fact, the VA even recommends EMDR as a treatment for PTSD in combat veterans.

How long does it take?

Individual results vary, and healing does not take place overnight. But clients often report significant reductions in distressing symptoms in just a few sessions.  In any event, results usually are seen much faster in EMDR than in traditional talk therapy.

Are there any side-effects?

EMDR is considered to be a safe treatment with few side effects.  Before you start, please be aware that you may experience a heightened sense of awareness both during and in the hours following a session. (The session “jump-starts” your brain’s process, but the process continues for a time after the session ends.) Some clients report a sense of light-headedness, and/or vivid dreams during the first night or two.

While these side effects can be startling and possibly stressful, they are usually short-lived and much less disturbing than the targeted memories themselves. They are also evidence that your brain is working hard to process the memories, and that healing is starting to take place. -

Your therapist will be aware of these possibilities and can help you learn coping skills to help you move more smoothly through the process. So be sure to let him or her know right away if you experience any disturbing effects during the process.