What is EMDR and how to get help in San Diego?
by Katherine Pica LCSW
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Is a research based therapy that has been shown to be effective in helping people recover from trauma, and PTSD. Inevitably, most of us seem to experience some form of trauma at some point in our lives. Whatever incident may be experienced as sad, upsetting or disturbing to you is a type of trauma. There is no trauma too big or small for EMDR. EMDR is a type of therapy offered at Resilience Counseling.
What is EMDR?
EMDR is thoroughly research based and has demonstrated to be an effective form of treating a number of mental health conditions. EMDR treatment includes bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, etc) to help access the opposite sides of the brain. This bilateral stimulation assists in the reprocessing of negative events or trauma. The use of bilateral stimulation in an EMDR session (guided eye movements, tapping, etc) can often be experienced by patients as mildly soothing or comforting.
EMDR is quite different from most other forms of therapy. EMDR therapy can assist the brain by encouraging its ability to access negatively stored memories. EMDR can also greatly help in the reprocessing of events and negative beliefs held about oneself.
What Can EMDR help treat?
PTSD
Grief
Dissociative Disorders
Trauma
Disturbing Memories
Stress
Sexual Abuse or Rape
Physical Abuse
Childhood Trauma
Emotional Abuse
Life Threatening Accidents
Car Accidents
Child Birth Trauma
Upsetting Events
How does EMDR Work?
EMDR uses Eye Movement or other bilateral situations to activate opposite sides of the brain. One theory is that it works much like Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. REM sleep is thought to be the stage of sleep where we do much of our dreaming and reprocessing of recent events. Sometimes the event can be too big to process in dreams or sometimes our dreams get short-circuited (nightmares, etc). When that happens negative events can get stuck . Even if the event was weeks, months or years ago, it still feels like it’s happening all over again. EMDR can be a powerful form of therapy in helping a patient get “unstuck” from persistent unpleasant memories and anxiety.
What does EMDR look like in the therapy session?
1. Treatment planning
The first few sessions are used to get to know your situation, background and history. After that we decide together what to work on and what our goals for treatment will be. In order to help you reach your goals, we will discuss different treatment options. We will decide together how to approach your goals. Treatment options may include EMDR and other forms of therapy.
Before we begin the use of eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation we will work together to learn skills and resources to help you soothe yourself after processing negative events. These skills are relatively easy to master, yet powerful, and can be highly effective in our everyday lives, as well as at the end of an EMDR session.
2. Reprocessing- EMDR
During EMDR therapy you will be asked to bring up disturbing events while the therapist helps you to pay attention to some sort of bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, etc).
3. Integration with EMDR therapy
After the disturbing events have been processed and they are not as emotionally charged we will work together to help integrate these new insights into your life.
How to get EMDR therapy in San Diego, CA
Call to set up a 15 minute free consultation to discuss if EMDR might be useful to you. Contact Us to schedule a free 15 minute phone call.
