EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing - Therapy for Trauma & PTSD
“63% of Canadians have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lifetime.”
Trauma carries over from past generations. Today, you can feel the impact of what happened many generations ago.
Background:
Storage of Memories.
Disturbing events get stored in the brain in a way that our human system feels like the event is either going to happen again at any moment or is happening now. This gets stored physically in the brain. When another similar event happens the brain reacts as if the original disturbing event is happening.
EMDR helps to move the storage of that memory to a more functional part of the brain that can experience the event as actually being in the past. It is important to know that there is real physical change happening in EMDR. The events that previously activated the brain into overreaction no longer have that effect. The person can now react to the present without the past interfering.
--- Deb Kennard, Personal Transformation Institute ---
Evidence Based.
Developed in 1987 by Francine Shapiro, EMDR is a non-invasive, evidence-based method of psychotherapy that helps victims recover from the effects of psychological trauma through adaptive information processing. EMDR therapy is an 8 phase trauma treatment that comprehensively identifies & addresses experiences that have overwhelmed the brain’s natural resilience or coping capacity, thereby generating traumatic symptoms and/or harmful coping strategies. Through EMDR therapy, clients are able to reprocess traumatic information until it is no longer psychologically disruptive.
--- www.emdrhap.org ---
The Difference.
EMDR therapy does not require talking in detail about the distressing issue or completing homework between sessions.
EMDR therapy, rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviours resulting from the distressing issue, allows the brain to resume its natural healing process.
--- www.emdria.org ---
Concerns.
Anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, chronic Illness and medical issues, depression and bipolar disorders, dissociative disorders, eating disorders, grief and loss, pain, performance anxiety, personality disorders, PTSD and other trauma and stress-related issues, sexual assault, sleep disturbance, substance abuse and addiction, violence and abuse.
--- www.emdria.org ---
Expectations:
Reprocessing Sessions.
Your therapist will move their fingers back & forth & ask you to follow these hand motions with your eyes. Tappers or alternative ways of bilateral stimulation may also be used . At the same time, the EMDR therapist will have you recall a disturbing event. This can include emotions and/or body sensations that go along with the memory.
Your therapist will also ask you to rate your level of disturbance prior to processing the memory, and after processing the memory.
--- www.webmd.com ---
Length.
A single session can be 50 min or longer.
As each client is unique in their traumas, and in their processing time, there is no one-size-fits-all to how many EMDR sessions will be required.
However, EMDR is generally completed in fewer sessions than alternative psychotherapies.
--- www.emdria.org ---