Therapy with EMDR

EMDR is a form of psychotherapy

proven to be highly effective in treating a wide range of issues.

EMDR is so effective that EMDR therapy is often short-term.

Is is very common for clients who have experienced only limited results with traditional therapy to find that with EMDR, emotional and creative issues are thoroughly resolved. The result is often a future free of entanglement with old pain and limiting self-messages. Without those burdens, personal power becomes readily accessible.

EMDR was originally developed for working with both recent and past traumas.

Because it brought such powerful shifts for people with traumatic injury, therapists soon started to explore using it for other therapeutic problems. It is now widely used for the treatment of depression and anxiety. I find it especially exciting to see the clearing effects of EMDR as a psychotherapy for creative blocks and procrastination. In fact, whenever the issue stems from limiting beliefs about yourself, EMDR therapy is worth exploring.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.

Originally this name accurately reflected what happened in an EMDR therapy session. The therapist moved her fingers or a wand before the client’s face and the client let their eyes follow back and forth. Today, in an EMDR session, the therapist may use eye movements or alternating left/right sounds or tactile stimulation to support the client in reprocessing emotional residue from distant or recent past events. The clearing that results might sound improbable precisely because the work is so simple and the sessions so straightforward, were it not for the huge body of research documenting the remarkable effectiveness of treatment with EMDR.

EMDR is the most thoroughly researched psychotherapy modality

for the treatment of trauma and PTSD. Research shows remarkable effects – from returning war veterans with PTSD to survivors of childhood trauma. And the best news is that the positive effects of EMDR therapy hold up over time. The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies has rated EMDR therapy as a Level A treatment (the highest rating available) for Adult Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

In spite of the large body of definitive research on EMDR,

there is no consensus as to how EMDR creates such impressive results. It is known that in upsetting circumstances, the brain cannot fully process the emotional and cognitive distress at hand. Some hypothesize that the disturbing memories, and the conscious or unconscious beliefs that go with them, get trapped in short-term memory. In this theory, it is believed that the bilateral stimulation somehow moves the memory, and accompanying beliefs, from short-term into long-term memory centers, where it can become just another non-debilitating memory.

Brain research is growing at such a rapid pace that our understanding of the healing mechanisms of EMDR is rapidly expanding.Whatever the mechanism is, many people report that life-long distress shifts as a result of EMDR therapy — that their memories are still there but the pain they had carried for so long is relieved. For these people, their relationship to their memories has profoundly changed. Of course, EMDR may not be effective for everyone, but for many it is a breakthrough process that can accelerate therapy.

The short-term benefits of EMDR

can be immediate — letting go of the emotional burden of trauma and upsetting memories. In the longer term, EMDR can facilitate the freedom to create the life you seek.

EMDR is treatment worth exploring if you have experienced

If you seek EMDR Therapy,

be certain your therapist has been professionally trained in the modality. Except for some clinical graduate programs, EMDR training is offered only to licensed professional psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health counselors and social workers. Guidelines for this training recognize the necessity of having EMDR therapists be experienced practitioners.

Beyond the EMDR Basic Training, I have chosen to continue my training and have become a Certified EMDR Therapist, as well as an EMDR Consultant to other EMDR therapists. Certification is overseen by the EMDR International Association, EMDRIA.

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