Photo courtesy of Teresa Newmark
EMDR: healing from emotional distress
EMDR is one of the most effective therapies I have used in my many years as a therapist. With EMDR I am able to help clients recover from the emotional aftermath of disturbing experiences. While no therapeutic approach is best for everyone, both clinical experience and research show impressive results in the use of EMDR to facilitate recovery from both traumatic experiences (natural disasters, car accidents, physical and sexual abuse) and disturbing experiences (a bad break up, job loss, or the wounding impact of a harsh parent). I am trained in both EMDR (Shapiro, 1989) and the Flash Technique (Manfield, 2016).
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence based psychotherapy developed by Francine Shapiro (1989) that helps people heal from the emotional distress caused by past disturbing experiences. Our minds and bodies have natural healing mechanisms. Just as our body knows how to heal a wound, our brain's information processing system naturally seeks to restore our mental health. If our natural healing, processes are blocked, however, we can fail to heal from emotional distress. Healing can be impeded by a number of factors. We may fail to heal when we are deprived of the resources (such as restorative sleep, dreaming, reflection, relational support) that help us heal from emotional pain, or when distressing experiences occurs before we are old enough to have developed adequate coping skills. Healing may be blocked when our experiences are so overwhelming that our inner resources prove inadequate. Emotional distress that goes unprocessed and unhealed can impact our health and well-being and lead to distorted thoughts about ourselves and our world. We may feel unlovable even when we know we are loved, unsafe when we know we are safe, or react in ways that seem out of proportion. EMDR therapy helps unblock the brain's information processing system so that healing can occur.
The EMDR Institute (emdr.com/what-is-emdr) provides the following description:
"EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, he asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.” Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies."
For more information:
emdria.org
connect.springerpub.com
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence based psychotherapy developed by Francine Shapiro (1989) that helps people heal from the emotional distress caused by past disturbing experiences. Our minds and bodies have natural healing mechanisms. Just as our body knows how to heal a wound, our brain's information processing system naturally seeks to restore our mental health. If our natural healing, processes are blocked, however, we can fail to heal from emotional distress. Healing can be impeded by a number of factors. We may fail to heal when we are deprived of the resources (such as restorative sleep, dreaming, reflection, relational support) that help us heal from emotional pain, or when distressing experiences occurs before we are old enough to have developed adequate coping skills. Healing may be blocked when our experiences are so overwhelming that our inner resources prove inadequate. Emotional distress that goes unprocessed and unhealed can impact our health and well-being and lead to distorted thoughts about ourselves and our world. We may feel unlovable even when we know we are loved, unsafe when we know we are safe, or react in ways that seem out of proportion. EMDR therapy helps unblock the brain's information processing system so that healing can occur.
The EMDR Institute (emdr.com/what-is-emdr) provides the following description:
"EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, he asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.” Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies."
For more information:
emdria.org
connect.springerpub.com