What is EMDR, and how does it work?

Many traditional therapy models assist clients in learning to accept aspects of their lives and successfully manage their symptoms in order to function more successfully in their day to day lives. EMDR supports clients in eliminating the distress at the root, allowing clients to live life more fully in the absence of distress and symptoms. The EMDR process teaches the resources needed to get through the distress of processing the past, and move into the future confident in your ability to handle whatever comes your way. All of this typically occurs in a much shorter time frame than traditional talk therapies, with typical clients experiencing a significant reduction in problem symptoms and more confidence to handle daily life in just 3 sessions, and an elimination of associated distress in 12 sessions.

Sometimes the past is what limits the present and future. If a challenging or traumatic past is keeping you from being the person you want to be, or creating chaos in your child, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) may be able to help. By bridging the gap between what we know is true and what we feel, EMDR links the part of ourselves trapped in memories to currently held knowledge, allowing us to make sense of what happened and establish adaptive beliefs about ourselves and the world. EMDR is an evidence based practice that has helped people from all backgrounds move beyond maladaptive beliefs and behaviors quickly, and feel prepared to move forward. 

Both single event trauma and complex trauma have been successfully reprocessed with EMDR in an 8 phase process starting at your intake. EMDR is available for all ages, treating many different challenges including PTSD, anxiety, depression, stress, complicated grief, performance anxiety, pain disorders, chronic pain, addiction, and phobias.  Unlike many traditional approaches to therapy that help you manage your distress, EMDR assists you in resolving past trauma so there is no distress left to hold you back from living the life you wish to lead. 

What To Expect in EMDR session

EMDR is an 8 phase treatment starting at intake, helping you build the resources you need to deal with distress and emotional challenges and stressors that come with processing trauma, as well as those every day stressors we all endure. You will feel prepared to manage whatever comes up before any reprocessing begins. You will work with your therapist to establish the distressing events either currently occurring or those in the past contributing to the distress you are experiences, and then reprocess them to remove the pain and upset and the root of your symptoms. No memories are forgotten, no inception style ideas implanted, just an experience that supports resolution of distress. An important part of treatment involves preparing you for future events that would otherwise have been challenging, to ensure you are ready to take on what life gives you, rather than shackling you to the therapy couch whenever something challenging comes your way.  Throughout treatment, you are in control and your own mind does the healing, with your therapist there to support and guide you along the way. 

EMDR is very different from traditional talk therapy, as there is little talking through, or discussing problems. "Processing" does not mean talking about it. "Processing" involves your therapist setting up a learning state that will allow experiences that are causing problems to be "digested" and stored appropriately as memories. While it can be difficult work, an EMDR session often resolves trauma and distress much more quickly than traditional talk therapy. That means that what is useful to you from an experience will be learned, and stored with appropriate emotions in your brain, and be able to guide you in positive ways in the future. The unhelpful emotions, beliefs, and body sensations will be resolved. Negative emotions, feelings and behaviors are generally caused by unresolved earlier experiences that are driving you in the wrong direction. The goal of EMDR therapy is to leave you with the emotions, understanding, and perspectives that will lead to healthy choices and confidence to move forward.