About EMDR
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a powerful relatively new therapeutic technique that has helped many
thousands of people find healing from a wide range of personal and emotional difficulties.
What People have said about EMDR
EMDR is described as ‘The revolutionary new therapy for freeing the mind, clearing the body and opening the heart.’¹
An article in the Times (May 22, 2004) quotes Dr David Servan-Schreiber, a leading US psychiatrist, as saying “A few sessions
of EMDR are often enough to clear out the consequences of old sufferings….I do not know of any treatment in psychiatry,
including the most powerful drugs, that has reported results of this magnitude over three weeks.” An extended discussion of
EMDR is included in Dr Servan-Schreiber’s book – ‘Healing without Freud and Prozac’.²
1 Parnell, L., Transforming Trauma: EMDR (London: Norton, 1997)
2 Servan-Schreiber, D., Healing without Freud and Prozac (London: Rodale, 200)
Professor Gordon Turnball, Consultant Psychiatrist says: “In my opinion, EMDR is an invaluable psychotherapeutic tool
that we could not do without. Patients who benefit from EMDR include those suffering from anxiety states…..obsessive
compulsive disorders…. and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. EMDR tends to work quickly once the therapeutic relationship
is established and its effects are permanent because once processed the memories are within the patients’ control.”
Professor Gordon Turnball, BSc, FRCP, FRCPsych; Consultant Psychiatrist, the Ridgeway Hospital, Wroughton, Wilts
What does EMDR therapy involve?
Therapy begins with the therapist seeking to understand the nature of the problems presented by the client, to
determine whether EMDR is suitable, to establish the specific events from the past and/or present that need to be worked
with and to orient the client to the process.
In an actual EMDR session, the client is asked to focus on a selected upsetting event with its associated thoughts
and emotions. Then, bilateral stimulation with eye movements or alternating taps or sound beeps or music is begun.
From time to time, the therapist stops the stimulation to ask about the client’s current state and to guide the process.
The processing of the selected event or image ends when, after repeated viewing of the image, the client is able to do so
with a positively enhanced sense of well being. The upsetting memory or emotion often seems to have faded into the past
and to lost its power.
EMDR is a non-drug, non-hypnotic psychotherapy procedure. It is non-directive and does not require the therapist to
know details of the events that have led the client to therapy, only what happens during the process. The EMDR process
is client led and always remains within the control of the client.
Why bring up a painful memory?
When painful memories are avoided, they keep their disturbing power. They can unexpectedly and sometimes frighteningly
affect our behaviour in the present.. With EMDR you can face the memory in a safe setting, so that you do not feel overwhelmed.
From here, you can move on and allow the memory and emotions to fade into the past and lose their power.
How does it work?
At this point in the development of this therapy, we don’t really know how EMDR works. There are various theories, one
of which compares the movement of the eyes in therapy with the movement that occurs naturally during dreaming, which
seems to speed up the client’s ability to move through the healing process. Some websites describe alternative theories
as to how it works.
What kind of problems does EMDR help?
EMDR is useful for the treatment of the following conditions:
- Trauma (resulting from accidents, disasters, emotional distress)
- Depression
o Relationship problems
o Anxiety based disorders including panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive
disorders, phobias
- Abuse (verbal, physical and sexual)
- Self-esteem issues
- Episodic rage.
- Performance anxiety
- Addiction and substance abuse
- Eating disorders
EMDR is especially effective with children. It is capable of rapid results.
|
