Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a groundbreaking therapeutic approach designed to help individuals process and heal from traumatic experiences. Developed in the late 1980s, EMDR has transformed the lives of countless people, providing a path to recovery for those struggling with trauma, anxiety, depression, and more.

How Does EMDR Work?

EMDR therapy utilizes a unique, structured eight-phase approach that guides you through the healing process:

  1. History Taking: Your therapist will gather information about your history and identify specific trauma targets.
  2. Preparation: Together, you’ll develop coping strategies and establish a safe space for your healing journey.
  3. Assessment: Identify negative beliefs associated with your trauma and establish positive beliefs to replace them.
  4. Desensitization: Through guided eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation, you’ll process traumatic memories, reducing their emotional charge.
  5. Installation: Focus on positive beliefs, integrating them into your self-concept.
  6. Body Scan: Identify any physical tension or discomfort related to the trauma and process it.
  7. Closure: Ground yourself and return to a state of equilibrium after each session.
  8. Re-evaluation: Assess progress in subsequent sessions, ensuring lasting change.

Why Choose EMDR Therapy?

1. Proven Effectiveness
EMDR has been extensively researched and is endorsed by organizations such as the American Psychological Association and the World Health Organization as a highly effective treatment for trauma.

2. Rapid Relief
Many clients experience significant relief from symptoms in just a few sessions, making it a more efficient option compared to traditional talk therapy.

3. Comprehensive Approach
EMDR addresses not just the mind, but also the body, integrating emotional and physical healing for a holistic recovery.

4. Empowering Process
Through EMDR, you reclaim control over your thoughts and emotions, empowering you to rewrite your narrative.

Who Can Benefit from EMDR?

EMDR therapy is suitable for a wide range of individuals, including those dealing with:

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  • Anxiety and Panic Disorders
  • Depression
  • Grief and Loss
  • Phobias
  • Performance Anxiety
  • Childhood Trauma

Take the First Step Toward Healing

If you’re ready to break free from the chains of your past and embrace a brighter future, EMDR therapy could be the solution you’ve been searching for.

Contact Us Today


Reach out now to learn more about EMDR and how it can transform your life. 724-306-6683 to Schedule Your Free 15 Minute Consult to See How It Can Be a Good Fit To Get You to Your Goals

Video Courtesy of the EMDR International Association:
http://www.emdria.org

Bi-lateral stimulation is one part of the EMDR process.  This basically means that both sides of the body are being utilized, and both hemispheres of the brain.  Since the left hemisphere of the brain tells the story, like a script, and the right hemisphere of the brain experiences the story, like how it feels in the body, we need to get them “talking” to each other to effectively process.  Sometimes, we don’t have words or memories for what has happened to us, but we “feel” the experience inside of us.  Sometimes, we are numb to the feelings and only have the narrative.  Either way, by utilizing EMDR as a therapeutic mode of treatment for trauma and anxiety, we are allowing deep brain pathways, body pathways, and emotional pathways to have their information processed.  This bi-lateral stimulation can be through eye-movement such as following a therapist’s fingers back and forth or a digital ball or light movement on a bar in front of you, through crossing arms/hands and alternately tapping your upper chest, by alternately tapping your legs with your hands, holding electronic pulsers that buzz back and forth in each hand, or even listening to audio tones which ping back and forth from ear to ear.  All of these options are effective in allowing deep, deep processing to occur.

EMDR also targets experiences and thoughts stored in cognitive (brain) memory.  Through the use of a planned protocol to help clients identify the potential roots of negative beliefs about themselves as a result of the troubling experiences, as well as using the intensity of the disturbance as a baseline, EMDR therapists guide clients through sets of bi-lateral stimulation approximately 40 seconds in length, and the client simply “notices” what each thread of thought, body sensation, emotion, or other mode of memory is revealed.  This offers a sort of play-by-play of the experience and how it has been encoded in the past in the body.  Our system holds trauma and must process it in a healthy way for trauma to resolve.  EMDR allows this healthy way to process because it is a wholistic approach.

Trauma makes experiences feel like they are still currently taking place, but by being present in the moment with the therapist and the bi-lateral movement experiences, the past can be resolved without being too overwhelming as the client can attend to the here-and-now as well as process the past as it is stored in the body currently.

At the end of each set, the therapist asks the client to simply state the “headline” of what they have noticed as a result of that set, be it a body sensation, thought, feeling, or memory.  The therapist knows what to listen and look for to know how to direct the client to the next step in processing. 

As the processing stages proceed, the level of disturbance reduces, and healthier information can be integrated through the reprocessing process.