What Is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR therapy helps patients heal from difficult or traumatic experiences by reprocessing those memories. After the process is complete, patients will remember the memory, but it will no longer trigger the same emotional intensity or distress.

EMDR therapy uses bilateral stimulation, which involves actions such as looking from side to side, tapping on alternate shoulders, or listening to sounds in one ear and then the other. Using this technique, EMDR therapy can help patients reprocess traumatic memories and change the emotions associated with them.

What Does EMDR Therapy Treat?

EMDR therapy can help patients suffering from the following:

• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Chronic pain
• Depression
• Grief and loss
• Phobias
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Stress

Who Is a Good Candidate for EMDR Therapy?

A good candidate for EMDR therapy is someone who has been through a traumatic or stressful event that still affects them and wants to heal through a structured approach.

EMDR therapy is a high-intensity process, so it’s important that the patient has stability and safety in their daily life before treatment.

What to Expect

EMDR therapy is performed in a one-on-one setting with a therapist and follows an eight-step process:

• Client history: The therapist learns the patient’s history and goals for therapy.
• Preparation: The therapist helps the patient build coping and calming skills to prepare them for therapy.
• Assessment: The patient chooses the memory they want to work on.
• Desensitization: The patient recalls the memory while performing bilateral stimulation, as directed by their therapist.
• Installation: The patient strengthens positive thoughts about themselves and replaces distressing thoughts about the event with more adaptive, empowering ones.
• Body scan: The patient checks for any leftover tension in the body, determining how the memory makes them feel.
• Closure: The therapist will end each session, ensuring the patient feels calm and safe.
• Reevaluation: The therapist will review the patient’s progress in future sessions.

Patients may see improvement in as few as one or two sessions, though it can take several months for them to fully shift their emotional response to the traumatic memories being addressed.