EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
EMDR is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences.
Studies show that 84%-90% of single trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90 minute sessions.
Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.
More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. One study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Given the worldwide recognition as an effective treatment of trauma, you can easily see how EMDR therapy would be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that are the reason people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and all the myriad problems that bring them in for therapy. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy. Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 25 years.
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Case Studies
Understanding how others have utilized EMDR for recovery can often give one a sense if EMDR will be right for you. Click below to review case studies compiled by the American Psychological Association.
Mike, a 32-year-old Iraq War veteran
Mike was a 32-year-old flight medic who had completed two tours in Iraq. He had been discharged from the Army due to his posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and was divorced with a 2-year-old son. The Army psychologist referred Mike for treatment of his PTSD with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy.
EMDR Treatment of Workplace Trauma A Case Series
This case series describes the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) treatment of seven bank employees and one transportation worker who suffered repeated acute traumatization.
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What does the treatment look like?
EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, they ask the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings. In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.” Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies.
Can EMDR treat every disorder?
No. EMDR therapy was developed as a treatment for traumatic memories and research has demonstrated its effectiveness in the treatment of PTSD (see Is EMDR an efficacious treatment for PTSD?). Shapiro (2001) states that it should be helpful in reducing or eliminating other disorders that originate following a distressing experience. For example, Brown, McGoldrick, and Buchanan (1997) found successful remission in five of seven consecutive cases of Body Dysmorphic Disorder cases after 1-3 EMDR therapy sessions that processed the etiological memory. Similarly there have been reports of elimination of phantom limb pain following EMDR treatment of the etiological memory and the pain sensations (Vanderlaan, 2000; Wilensky, 2000; S. A. Wilson, Tinker, Becker, Hofmann, & Cole, 2000). It is not anticipated that EMDR therapy will be able to alleviate fully the symptoms arising from physiologically based disorders, such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. However, experiential contributors may play a major role in some symptoms, and there are anecdotal reports of persons with such disorders being treated successfully with EMDR therapy for distress related to traumatic events.
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What are my next steps?
We are always happy to have a non-committal conversation to see if EMDR is right for you. Reach out via phone or secure message and we will follow up shortly.