What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms (EMDRIA.org, 2024). EMDR is a psychotherapy treatment known to alleviate unwelcome psychological stress and emotional disturbances.
How Can EMDR Help You?
Studies show that EMDR therapy can yield improvements in mental health often more quickly than many other forms of psychotherapy. Assumptions that severe emotional pain takes a long period of time to heal are often proven incorrect with EMDR.
According to EMDR.com, the brain’s system of processing information naturally moves towards mental health. When an experience that involves emotional disturbance occurs, or If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, that emotional wound festers and can lead to maladaptive beliefs and cause prolonged suffering. You may observe this occurrence if you notice that you are being emotionally triggered in your daily life by things that logically seem relatively inane. EMDR helps the brain to reprocess the event, allowing it to be remembered but without the emotional 'baggage'. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.
Who Is EMDR For?
EMDR originated as a treatment designed to alleviate distress associated with traumatic experiences and memories. What we now know of trauma is that what is traumatic is relative to the individual experiencing the event and how internalization and personalization may occur. Ongoing research supports positive outcomes for EMDR patients, showing EMDR therapy as a helpful treatment for disorders such as depression, anxiety, addiction, chronic pain, OCD, PTSD and other distressing life experiences (Maxfield, 2019)
