EMDR Therapy

Renovating the heart for life.

What Is EMDR?

The acronym EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy.

EMDR is best known and was initially named because of the activated eye movements that are part of the therapy. These eye movements, called bilateral stimulation, appear to help the brain process and work through difficult, troubling, and even traumatic experiences. EMDR was discovered and initially developed by Francine Shapiro in the 1980s, and since then has been internationally recognized as an effective treatment for trauma and a wide range of experientially based disorders.

The basic idea is that EMDR unhitches us from negative and maladaptive beliefs and feelings that are attached to past troubling experience so that we can move ahead free from what has happened.

To learn more, I recommend this video from the EMDR International Association: Introduction to EMDR Therapy

Who Might Benefit From EMDR?

EMDR has been shown, through research and successful clinical results, to be effective for people suffering from:

  • war trauma

  • panic disorders and other anxiety disorders

  • victims of crime and first-hand witnesses to violence (such as first responders)

  • excessive grief

  • effects of sexual assault

  • depression and a wide range of other diagnoses

EMDR uses a set of procedures to organize your negative and positive feelings, emotions, and thoughts, and then uses bilateral stimulation to help you work through disturbing memories and experiences.

What Can I Expect in a Session?

After an initial exploration of the history and dynamics of your difficulties, a typical EMDR session would look something like the following:

  • You will be asked a set of questions to assess, access, and activate the negative experience and the desired resolution.

  • Sets of rapid eye movement, or other forms of bilateral stimulation, will be applied.

  • You will be encouraged to just “free associate” and allow the brain to work through the experience.

  • Sets of eye movements will be altered with brief reports about what you are experiencing.

  • EMDR processing will continue until the past experience has been updated to an adaptive present perspective.

With longstanding issues, this process may take multiple sessions.