Eye-Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) is a clinically-researched protocol in use since the late 1980s. EMDR is a treatment of choice for those working through traumatic, emotionally challenging, or disturbing events. Using this protocol, millions of people have found relief from symptoms associated with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Whether from exposure to combat, rape or sexual assault, physical battery, auto or sporting accidents, EMDR is a tool that can aid the relief of distressing symptoms and support a person’s journey and return to feeling whole.
For Challenging Life Situations
People have benefited from receiving EMDR treatment even when they do not have clear traumatic event histories. The use of EMDR is indicated in other situations, as well.
Clients have reported success addressing:
- Phobias
- Sports Accidents
- Performance anxiety
- Stress reduction
- Panic attacks
- Auto-Accidents
- Complicated grief
- Dissociative disorders
- Disturbing memories
- Pain disorders
- Addictions
Research & Results
Controlled studies continue to demonstrate that recipients of EMDR treatment consistently reduce or eliminate symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress. EMDR has been demonstrated as an effective treatment for both single and complex traumas as well as for other life-disturbing events. Additionally, clients often find relief from associated symptoms such as anxieties, nightmares, and flashbacks.
Over the past 25+ years EMDR has been used to support the processing of various life disturbing events such as sudden losses, grief, divorce, phobias, and accidents.
Internationally Recognized as Effective
The American Psychiatric Association and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies current treatment guidelines designate EMDR as an effective treatment for post-traumatic stress. Numerous additional organizations support the use of EMDR in various treatment settings.
EMDR Approved
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Department of Defense (DoD)
- The United Kingdom Department of Health
- The Israeli National Council for Mental Health
- American Psychiatric Association (APA)
- The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
EMDR’s Integrative Approach
Neurobiology research has discovered that during overwhelming emotional experiences, such as an accident, the brain cannot process information as effectively as it does normally. This results in the sensation that one moment in time is frozen in the perceptions of the brain. The brain then, in an attempt to understand and sort this event, may link it with dissimilar associations. Now in the present, when a person brain perceives any linked memory, often times very dissimilar in content to initial event, such as smells, sounds, images, or emotions, it can feel as though the initial event is happening again.
EMDR supports your brain’s natural ability to unpack frozen emotional memories. This treatment helps a person identify and process stuck disturbing events. The EMDR process seems to access the brain’s natural information process and support the reordering of an emotional memory. This treatment does not remove memories. EMDR supports the reprocessing of stuck historical emotional information and allows for integration of experience into a narrative that happened in the past. During EMDR treatment clients are awake, not hypnotized, and in control of the pace of the treatment process.