Your beliefs become your thoughts. Your thoughts become your words.
Your words become your actions. Your actions become your habits.
Your habits become your values. Your values become your destiny.
Mahatma Gandhi
What is EMDR Counseling?
The process of Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing is used to gradually overcome trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder. A professional will guide you through the processing of the traumatic events by focusing on the emotional experiencing within your body. It’s been shown to be effective when done in small increments, slowly conditioning a patient to be able to recall distressing memories without overwhelming emotional stress.
Does EMDR Work for Anxiety?
While EMDR is developed and used primarily for treating PTSD, it is effective with other disorders, including depression, anxiety, panic attacks and phobias. Specifically, it’s meant to open healthy emotional responses to triggering and distressing events in memory. You’re able to reprogram your emotional and physical responses to a stimulus that would otherwise trigger distress. It’s generally done in phases, bit by bit, along with skills that you can practice independently. It’s intended to allow you to develop healthy emotional responses without exacerbating existing issues and conditions.
Can You Perform EMDR on Yourself?
EMDR is best practiced in session under the guidance of a therapist so you are not flooded by uncontrollable emotions. Your EMDR therapist is trained to control the environment to provide desensitization through affective exposure. It's an eight phase process that the therapist will guide you through. They may also have additional techniques, solutions and recommendations to help deal with specific issues. It is not safe to do EMDR by yourself.
Is EMDR Really Effective?
EMDR is a relatively modern process that has proven results in decreasing the negative effects of PTSD. It allows a patient to relive or explore distressing memories in depth, using specific eye movements, as well as additional techniques to manage responses. While this method has been questioned by a few… its shown significant success in treating symptoms of PTSD, with a high rate of effectiveness when practiced over a period of several months.
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR has been recognized as one of the most effective trauma treatments. It works to access and process traumatic memories to an adaptive resolution.
EMDR works on 3 levels. It often starts with targeting dysfunctional groundwork with the aim of reaching adaptive information. Then the person is desensitized to current triggers. Further, future templates are included to help the adaptive process.
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Mindfulness-based Psychotherapy
- Emotionally Focused Therapy