Please click the questions below to learn more about EMDR therapy

- What happens when you are traumatized?

Most of the time your body routinely manages new information and experiences without you being aware of it. However, when something out of the ordinary occurs and you are traumatized by an overwhelming event (e.g. a car accident) or by being repeatedly subjected to distress (e.g. childhood neglect), your natural coping mechanism can become overloaded. This overloading can result in disturbing experiences remaining frozen in your brain or being "unprocessed". Such unprocessed memories and feelings are stored in the limbic system of your brain in a "raw" and emotional form, rather than in a verbal “story” mode. This limbic system maintains traumatic memories in an isolated memory network that is associate with emotions and physical sensations, and which is disconnected from the brain’s cortex, where we use language to store memories. The limbic system’s traumatic memories can be continually triggered when you experience events that remind you in some way of the traumatic experience you have been through. Often the memory itself is long forgotten, but the painful feelings such as anxiety, panic, anger or despair are continually triggered in the present. Your ability to live in the present and learn from new experiences can therefore become inhibited. EMDR therapy helps create the connections between your brain’s memory networks, enabling your brain to process the traumatic memory in a very natural way.

- How does EMDR help?

No one knows exactly how any form of psychotherapy works neurobiologically in the brain.
However, we do know that when a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as
it does ordinarily. Generally, the brain has the power to heal itself after a psychological trauma.
However, sometimes it gets blocked, making it impossible for the trauma to heal itself and this is when EMDR therapy can help. 

EMDR therapy seeks to remove emotional blocks, so that healing can resume. You can compare the healing of emotional wounds to the healing of a scrape or cut on your knee. Usually a scrape heals quickly unless something is stuck in the wound. When a piece of dirt or debris gets lodged in the scraped skin, your body cannot heal properly. However, once the wound is cleaned, and the blockage is removed, recovery can continue rapidly.  Emotional blocks in the brain work the same way.

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EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information. Normal
information processing is resumed, so following a successful EMDR session, a person no longer
relives the images, sounds, and feelings when the event is brought to mind. You still remember
what happened, but it is less upsetting and you are no longer “frozen in time”. Many types of
therapy have similar goals. However, EMDR appears to be similar to what occurs naturally
during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Therefore, EMDR can be thought of as a
physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less
distressing way.

- What happens during an EMDR session?

EMDR therapy utilizes the natural healing ability of your body. After thorough assessment, you
will be asked specific question about a particular disturbing memory. While you are holding that
memory in your mind, the therapist will then use a form of bilateral stimulation in brief sets. The
stimulation may either be a bar of moving light that you must track from side to side with your eyes,
alternating buzzing sensation from tactile units that you hold in your hands, or sometimes
auditory stimulation which involves sound alternating from ear to ear in headphones. Whichever

form of bilateral stimulation you choose, your therapist will work closely with you to ensure that
you are comfortable. After the therapist applies short sets of bilateral stimulation, s/he will pause
the stimulus and ask you to report back on what you are noticing. Experiences during a session
may include changes in thoughts, images, and feelings.

With repeated sets of eye movements, the memory tends to change in such a way that it loses its
painful intensity and simply becomes a neutral memory of an event in the past. Other associated
memories may also heal at the same time. This healing of related memories can lead to dramatic
and rapid improvement in many aspects of your life.

- What can EMDR therapy treat?

In addition to its uses for the treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, EMDR therapy has
been successfully used to treat:

Anxiety and panic attacks
Depression
Stress
Phobias
Sleep problems
Complicated grief
Additions

Eating disorders
Chronic pain, including phantom limb pain
Self-esteem and performance anxiety

- Can anyone benefit from EMDR?

EMDR therapy can accelerate emotional healing by resolving the impact of your past traumas or adverse life events and allowing you to live more fully in the present. It can be used with virtually every
client. However, only you and your therapist can determine if this treatment approach is right for
you.

- How long does treatment using EMDR take?

EMDR therapy can be a brief, focused treatment, or it can be part of a longer psychotherapy
program. Each EMDR therapy session lasts approximately one hour.

- Will I remain awake, in control and empowered?

During EMDR therapy treatment, you will remain in control, fully alert and wide awake. EMDR
therapy is not a form of hypnosis and you can stop the process at any time. Throughout the
session, your therapist will support and facilitate your own self-healing and intervene as little as
possible. Reprocessing is usually experienced as something that happens spontaneously, and new
connections and insights are felt to arise quite naturally from within. As a result, most people
experience EMDR therapy as being a natural and very empowering therapy.

- Will I have to share vivid details of my traumatic event?

While the therapist will need you to visualize the traumatic experience and ask a few questions
about your feelings and body sensations at the start of the reprocessing session, you do not need
to describe what happened in great detail. Many people fear that they will be re-traumatized in
telling their story, but part of the beauty of EMDR therapy is that allows the client to share as
much or little about the precipitating event as they wish.

- Will I feel better right away with EMDR therapy?

Although EMDR therapy offers quick relief as compared to traditional talk therapy, you may feel
worse before you feel better. With EMDR therapy there is a rapid reprocessing that takes place
in the therapists office and the reprocessing continues in your brain even after your session is
over. Thus, the feelings associated with EMDR therapy can feel “intense” for a while as your
brain adapts. Rest assured that before any reprocessing begins, your therapist will work with you to
ensure that you are equipped to cope with any intense emotions when they arise.

- What evidence is there that EMDR therapy is a successful treatment?

EMDR therapy is an innovative clinical treatment which has successfully helped millions of
individuals around the world. The validity and reliability of EMDR therapy has been established
by rigorous research. There are now more than thirty controlled studies of EMDR therapy,
making it the most thoroughly researched method used in the treatment of trauma. To read more
about EMDR therapy, please visit http://emdria.omeka.net for a full category of research
abstracts.

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Please feel free to contact me if you have

any further questions.

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