Eye Movement Desensitization
and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Your therapist may recommend EMDR as part of your treatment plan. This information is meant to provide a brief overview of EMDR. I am certified to practice EMDR and if it is recommended, you may want to learn more about it. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have about EMDR, or recommend helpful books about EMDR.
What is EMDR?
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories.
- After successful treatment with EMDR, emotional distress is relieved, negative beliefs are reformulated, and physiological arousal is reduced.
- During EMDR the client attends to emotionally disturbing material in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus. Therapist-directed lateral eye movements are the most commonly used external stimulus but a variety of other stimuli including hand-tapping and audio stimulation are often used.
- It is thought that EMDR facilitates the accessing of the traumatic memory network, so that information processing is enhanced, with new associations forged between the traumatic memory and more adaptive memories or information. These new associations are thought to result in complete information processing, new learning, elimination of emotional distress, and development of cognitive insights. The technique was originally applied with eye movements which stimulate both hemispheres of the brain, facilitating neural connections across the left and right hemispheres. Now, bilateral stimulation is applied in other ways as well, not necessarily eye movements.
- EMDR uses a three pronged protocol:
- the past events that have laid the groundwork for dysfunction are processed, forging new associative links with adaptive information
- the current circumstances that elicit distress are targeted, and internal and external triggers are desensitized
- imaginal templates of future events are incorporated, to assist the client in acquiring the skills needed for adaptive functioning.
Research Findings
- EMDR has been listed as an effective treatment by the American Psychiatric Association, Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs, International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and numerous international agencies.
- More than a dozen controlled clinical trials support the use of EMDR for trauma such as that resulting from natural disaster and EMDR has been used successfully to treat war- and terrorism-related trauma.
- With little modification, EMDR has been used successfully in response to a variety of mass-casualty events, and can be integrated with educational formats.
- EMDR has an impact on intrusive imagery (such as nightmares and flashbacks), numbing, and hyper-arousal symptoms of PTSD, as well as on associated grief and depression.
- In several direct comparisons with cognitive-behavioral therapy, EMDR offers equivalent effects more quickly (fewer sessions or no homework), and process analyses indicate less distress for individuals undergoing treatment.
You can find more information about EMDR here: www.emdr.com.
