What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an information processing therapy that helps you cope with trauma, addictions, and phobias. EMDR is founded on the premise that each person has both an innate tendency to move toward health and wholeness, and the inner capacity to achieve it.
I use EMDR when appropriate in my practice to treat trauma underlying sexual compulsion, addiction triggers, anxiety, phobias, and performance enhancement. I am also an Approved Consultant working with other therapists seeking EMDR Certification.
Research suggests that when person is very upset, the brain has difficulty processing information as it normally does. Some traumatic events and recurring situations which lead to intense emotion becomes "frozen in time," thereby "stuck" in the information processing system. EMDR appears to have a direct effect on the way the brain processes upsetting material.
Neuroscience researchers continue to explore how the brain works. There is evidence for an innate adaptive information processing system that exists as part of human thinking and emotional self-regulation.
No one knows exactly how EMDR works. It involves bilateral stimulation of the brain, through the use of eye movements or alternating taps or sounds. With successful EMDR treatment, upsetting experiences can be worked through to "adaptive resolution." Through EMDR, a client can come to understand an event in the past or present, realize who or what was responsible for the event occurring, and feel more confident and certain about safety in the present and the ability to make healthy choices. What happened is still remembered by the client, but in a new and less disturbing way. The client will find that new and more flexible behaviors become more inviting and rewarding.
Clinical reports and analyses of multiple research projects suggest that EMDR treatment provides initial effects more rapidly, and provides opportunity to work through disturbance more rapidly and completely.
For more information, please visit the EMDR International Association.
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