What is EMDR?

Is EMDR Therapy for You?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR therapy includes a set of standardized protocols that incorporate elements from many different treatment approaches. To date, EMDR has helped millions of people of all ages relieve many types of psychological stress.

How does EMDR therapy work?

No one knows how psychotherapy works neurobiologically or in the brain. However, we do know that when a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. An experience becomes “frozen in time,” and remembering the event may feel as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven’t changed. Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people.

EMDR therapy 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. Many types of therapy have similar goals. However, EMDR therapy appears 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.

How long does EMDR therapy take?

One or more sessions are required for the therapist to understand the nature of the problem and to decide whether EMDR therapy is an appropriate treatment. The therapist will also discuss EMDR therapy more fully and provide an opportunity to answer questions about the psychotherapy. Once the therapist and client have agreed that EMDR is appropriate for a specific problem, the actual EMDR therapy may begin.

A typical EMDR therapy session lasts from 50 to 90 minutes. The type of problem, life circumstances, and the amount of previous trauma will determine how many treatment sessions are necessary. Initial EMDR processing may be directed to childhood events rather than to adult onset stressors, or the identified critical incident, if the client had a problematic childhood.  Clients generally gain insight into their situations, the emotional distress resolves, and they start to change their behaviors.  The length of treatment depends upon the number of traumas and the age of PTSD onset.  Generally, those with single-event adult onset trauma can be successfully treated in under 5 hours. Victims of multiple traumas may require a longer treatment time. EMDR may be used within a standard “talking” therapy, as an adjunctive therapy with a separate therapist, or as a treatment all by itself. 

What kind of problems can EMDR therapy treat?

Scientific research has established EMDR as effective for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, clinicians also have reported success using EMDR in treatment of the following conditions:

• Panic attacks
• Complicated grief
• Dissociative disorders
• Disturbing memories
• Phobias
• Pain disorders
• Performance anxiety
• Stress reduction
• Addictions
• Sexual and/or physical abuse
• Body dysmorphic disorders
• Personality disorders

(Information adapted from EMDR.com & EMDRIA.org. Please refer to these sites for additional information.)