What is EMDR?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. While this name can seem intimidating, as with most therapy approaches, this modality allows us to hone in on what is causing client's the most distress. This approach is rooted in the idea that past emotionally-charged experiences are overly impacting your present emotions, sensations, and thoughts about yourself.  Sometimes this is the feeling of  an oversized reaction or incongruent beliefs about yourself. An example of this might be: “Do you ever feel unlovable although you know you are a loved?”

 

EMDR processing helps you break through the emotional blocks that are keeping you from living an adaptive, emotionally healthy life. The way EMDR works is that it utilizes rapid sets of eye movements or alternate bilateral stimulation to assist you update disturbing experiences, very similar to what occurs when we sleep. During sleep, we alternate between regular sleep and REM (rapid eye movement). Our REM sleep is healing for our bodies and our minds and is the brain's natural way of processing difficult experiences.

 

When we have experiences, thoughts or sensations that get stuck, EMDR is a way we can work with your brain to replicate this pattern by alternating between sets of eye movements and brief reports about what you are noticing. By alternating between these two things, we are able to process and update your memories or beliefs to more adaptive and positive ones.