EMDR

EYE MOVEMENT, DESENSITIZATION, REPROCESSING

(E M D R)

A Tool to Address Traumatic Events

EMDR is a very powerful method to help people get past traumatic events. Life-changing events, such as accidents, losses, being exposed to violence, can have a profound impact on our ability to function in day-to-day life.

And, traumatic events do not have to be what we might think of as “severe” to have this kind of impact; they just need to land in a vulnerable place for us to be affected.

EMDR Helps Put the Past in the Past

The process of EMDR is a way to help us move past the trauma and reduce our vulnerability in this area. It enables us to return to living our normal lives feeling stronger and better prepared for whatever life brings us next.

The process is tough. We talk about the worst moments of the event(s) on which we are working. We work to evoke the feelings, sights, sounds, and smells of that experience. And, not everyone is ready to do this from the beginning.

We will assess your ability to use this method. If you are ready and it’s the right therapy, we will move forward. If it’s not, then we will work in other ways and maybe utilize EMDR later in your work as your abilities grow.

Putting EMDR to Work

Once we’ve identified that EMDR is an appropriate treatment for you and we’ve identified what we are going to work on, then we do a series of exercises using your eyes, ears, and/or your sense of touch to work through the experience. It helps your memory process the event, like how REM sleep helps you process short-term memory into long-term memory.

Once you’ve moved through the event, you will still remember it as it happened. We are not trying to rewrite history here. What will be different is that you can remember what happened and not feel like you are back in that moment again.

The average person can achieve putting a difficult memory in the past in 3 to 5 EMDR sessions. Of course, this varies from person to person and depends upon the topic. In my experience the results border on miraculous.

If this sounds like exactly what you need, call me, or submit a contact form to receive a free consultation now!