EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Densitization and Reprocessing. EMDR is an evidence based psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma and many other mental health problems. To date EMDR has helped millions of people of all ages relieve many types of psychological stress (EMDR Canada, 2022).
- What can EMDR treat? EMDR can treat concerns around stress, anxiety, self worth, perfectionism, feeling of not good enough and other limiting beliefs, trauma, single incidents (accidents, natural disasters etc.), phobias, disturbing memories, feeling stuck, depression and so on.
- What does an EMDR session look like? The amount of time the complete treatment varies. Treatment of the targets involves a three pronged protocol (1-past memories, 2-present disturbance, 3-future actions), and are needed to alleviate the symptoms and address the complete clinical picture. The goal of EMDR therapy is to process completely the experiences that are causing problems, and to include new ones that are needed for full health. “Processing” does not mean talking about it. “Processing” means setting up a learning state that will allow experiences that are causing problems to be “digested” and stored appropriately in your brain. That means that what is useful to you from an experience will be learned, and stored with appropriate emotions in your brain, and be able to guide you in positive ways in the future. The inappropriate emotions, beliefs, and body sensations will be discarded. Negative emotions, feelings and behaviours are generally caused by unresolved earlier experiences that are pushing you in the wrong directions. The goal of EMDR therapy is to leave you with the emotions, understanding, and perspectives that will lead to healthy and useful behaviours and interactions (EMDR Canada, 2022).
