What is EMDR?
7 Points About EMDR Therapy
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a type of psychotherapy that aims to help people address issues related to mental health and trauma. The therapy utilizes guided eye movements, bilateral stimulation, and cognitive strategies to change painful emotions, feelings, sensations associated with traumatic events.
EMDR works on the premise that when an individual experiences something traumatic or negative, it may affect the way they think and feel about themselves, their relationships with others, or their perceptions of the world around them in negative ways.
EMDR has been demonstrated to be successful for treating individuals experiencing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), chronic or acute stress/trauma-related disorders, complex grief disorder (CGD), and even major depression.
During an EMDR session a therapist will guide patients through light exercises like eye movements and tapping on both sides of the body so that they can experience neutralizing sensations that help counteract and transform painful ones from past experiences.
This is done while processing difficult memories so that individuals can resolve negative feeling patterns and develop healthier thought patterns about themselves and their life situations which supports greater well-being overall.
In addition to processing traumatic memories, use in Engagement & Consolidation (E&C) phase can also be employed in order to focus on current issues such as interpersonal relationships building self esteem and communication skills as well as creating positive thinking habits, reducing procrastination, increasing academic performance etc.
As opposed to traditional talk therapy practices like CBT where there is a predetermined length of treatment EMDR allows practitioners to custom fit services based on client needs allowing for faster effective treatment delivery while still having built in safeguards against retraumatization per protocol guidelines overseen by trained professionals.