What is Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), as with most therapy approaches, focuses on the individual's present  concerns. The EMDR approach believes past emotionally-charged experiences are overly influencing your present emotions, sensations, and thoughts about yourself. 

EMDR processing help you break though the emotional blocks that are keeping you from living an adaptive, emotionally healthy life.

EMDR uses rapid sets of eye movements to help you update disturbing experiences, much like what occurs during sleep. During sleep, we alternate between regular sleep and REM (rapid eye movement). This sleep pattern help you process things that are troubling you.

EMDR replicates this sleep pattern by alternation between sets of eye movements and reports about what you are noticing. This alternating process helps you update your memories to a healthier present perspective.

EMDR focuses on the brain's ability to constantly learn, taking past experiences and updating them with present information.

• Adaptive learning is constantly updating memory network systems.
• Past emotionally-charged experiences often interfere with your updating process.
• EMDR breaks through that interference and helps let go of the past and update your experiences to a healthier present perspective.

EMDR uses a set of procedures to organize your negative and positive feelings, emotions, and thoughts, and then uses bilateral stimulation, such as eye movements or alternating tapping, as the way to help you effectively work though those disturbing memories.

• You have come to treatment expressing concerns
• Your therapist will help you understand the dynamics of the presenting concerns and how to adaptively manage them.
• An overall treatment plan will be developed that will accomplish your goals.
• Within that treatment plan, EMDR, along with other therapy approaches, will be use to accomplish your treatment goals.

•  You will be asked a set of questions to access and activate the negative experience and the adaptive resolution.
• Sets of rapid eye movement (or other forms of bilateral stimulation) will be applied.
• You be encouraged to just "free associate" and allow the brain to work through the experience.
• Sets of eye movements will be alternated with brief reports about what you are experiencing.
• EMDR processing will continue until the past experience has been updated to an adaptive present perspective. With long standing issues, this process may take multiple sessions.

 Once the disturbing experiences have been updated, you and your therapist will work together to integrate these new insights and perspectives into your daily life. 

No, it is not necessary to talk about all the details of your experiences for them to be processed.

Having a big sale, on-site celebrity, or other event? Be sure to announce it so everybody knows and gets excited about it.

No. During EMDR processing, you are present and fully in control.

• EMDR, as with all treatment approaches, EMDR will help you accomplish your treatment goals.
• The length of time that it takes is dependent upon the complexity of your problems.
• Frequently, EMDR is only one of several treatment approaches that will be used to help you reach your treatment goals.