What is EMDR?

Many of us have heard about EMDR in passing or from loved ones who rave about how effective of a therapy modality it is but it leaves us wondering… what the heck is EMDR?

EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing which is a long way of saying it uses bilateral stimulation (stimulating both sides of the body and therefore brain) to reprocess past trauma or distressing memories.

The past affects the present in the ways we feel about ourselves, others and the world around us. The past also colors the ways we find ourselves either over or under reacting in situations and relationships in our lives in the present.

Below I will give you the top three themes to help you better understand EMDR.

1. It is an evidence-based therapy. This means it is a therapy technique developed by a PHD which has been proven by research to produce positive results in PTSD, anxiety and depressive patients. EMDR has been extensively researched and science has proven that even after clients stop EMDR treatment that their symptoms continue to improve.
2. It’s a form of exposure therapy. This means that in order to heal trauma we need to have one foot in the past and one foot in the present. In order to fully heal and release trauma, we need to trigger parts of the unhealed trauma such as the emotions, sensations, thoughts and memories. Essentially, we expose ourselves internally to the memories, thoughts and emotions in order to truly process and heal them.
3. The past affects the present. The belief in EMDR is that if you have any experiences in the present where you find yourself overreacting or under-reacting to a situation that it is because there are unhealed memories in your past. The reason why memories in the past are unhealed and therefore affect our present is because they were too overwhelming for our nervous system at the time to process them. That’s why in EMDR we go back to the past to process in order to help your present become more peaceful and happy.

EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) is one of the leading therapies for complex PTSD, PTSD, childhood trauma, overcoming experiences of rape, or sexual assault, and relationship disruptions in the past. EMDR can be used to process any memory in the past that we did not have the emotional capacity to process at the time. The more memories from the past that we were able to properly heal, the less power that our past will have on our present and the more control we will have over our life.

If you have any more questions about EMDR, ptsd or trauma therapy please reach out via the Metta Holistic Therapy contact page or email me directly at reneeminxtherapy@gmail.com – if you’re in crisis or an emergency please call 911.