What is EMDR?
What even is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR has been gaining more visibility in the past several years. Celebrities such as Prince Harry have publicly spoken about receiving EMDR therapy (https://www.emdria.org/emdr-in-the-news/prince-harry-speaks-out-about-his-experience-with-emdr-therapy/). Because EMDR is so different from traditional talk therapy (which is also a very helpful mental health treatment), potential clients have a lot of questions about what exactly EMDR is.
First and foremost, EMDR is a mental health treatment designed to help clients process painful emotions, situations, and beliefs about themselves. In EMDR therapy, clients learn useful information about their past experiences and become desensitized to past traumas. EMDR first became a treatment for PTSD, but now has been shown to help with anxiety, depression, OCD, and other distressing life circumstances (Shapiro, ix).
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and is a specialized treatment protocol that therapists must be trained in. In EMDR therapy, the client uses stimulation on both sides of the body, either eye movements, tapping, our audio tones, to successfully process emotions and memories related to distressing life experiences.
One of our co-founders, Leah Reed, is a trained EMDR therapist in Toledo, OH. We sat down with her to help understand further how EMDR has helped her past clients.
TMHC: How does EMDR help people?
Leah: EMDR therapy can help clients learn more helpful information about themselves using their brain’s natural healing processes. I define trauma as anyone who has an emotional wound. That’s not to say that everyone with an emotional wound has PTSD, but most people who have had an experience that was distressing have the potential to learn helpful information about themselves, others, and the world as a result of processing that experience. After EMDR, clients still remember those painful experience, but those memories no longer hold power of them in the present because their brain’s have learned helpful information and let go of unhelpful information.
TMHC: What types of treatment results have come from clients who have experienced EMDR therapy?
Leah: My clients tell me that after we successfully process a memory, the memory no longer has emotional “charge”. When the client thinks back to the memory, they can remember that the memory was sad or scary, but the memory no longer carries that weight in the present day that it used to.
TMHC: What do you want people to know about experiencing EMDR therapy?
Leah: EMDR can be tough because we are going back to moments in life that have been hurtful, scary, and/or traumatic. The benefit to returning to these moments to process them successfully is the relief that comes from no longer having to carry those burdens in the present day. EMDR can help clients become meaningfully engaged in their present day lives, free from the negative beliefs that have kept them stuck.
Schedule an appointment at The Mental Health Collaborative to learn more about how EMDR therapy might benefit you.
References:
Shapiro, Francine. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy. 3rd Ed. The Guilford Press, 2018.