What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) has been researched and proven as a highly effective treatment of trauma. This approach integrates many psychological theories and psychotherapeutic modalities. EMDR is used to treat other mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, phobia, addiction, complicated grief, etc. EMDR also helps to develop inner resources and coping skills to facilitate healthy life functioning in individuals.
The effectiveness of EMDR is based on the Adaptive Information Processing Model which basically means that our brain has a natural tendency to move toward wholeness and health and capacity to heal itself. Memory plays a tremendous role in our functioning and learning process. During some traumatic events, if brain becomes overwhelmed or a person does not have the resources to process the trauma, the Adaptive Information process might be blocked, and our memories are stored in a way that does not allow a brain to connect to the adaptive memory network and experience. Traumatic memories which are stored dysfunctionally seem to become frozen in time, thus, when they are triggered by stimuli, associations in the present, they result in pathological responses to the situations that have little or no danger. An individual began reliving trauma as it’s happening in the present as those frozen unprocessed emotions are so intense that it is very difficult to control them by the part of the brain that is responsible for rational responses. EMDR helps to unfreeze these dysfunctional memories, desensitize negative emotions associated with trauma, and reformulate a negative belief to a positive one by resorting connection with adaptive information neuron network.
EMDR is a relatively new therapy approach that was developed by Francine Shapiro, Phd, in the end of 1980’s. By data posted on www.emdr.com "...more than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy over the past years. Some of the research studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Given the worldwide recognition as an effective treatment of trauma, you can easily see how EMDR therapy would be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that are the reason people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and all the myriad problems that bring them in for therapy."
Maryana Harrelson, MA, LPC