EMDR Therapy

(EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING)

Are you struggling with traumatic memories?

Hope Fully Counseling is equipped with Licensed Counselors who specialize with a specialization in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), particularly as a treatment for trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). We can help you reprocess trauma and improve the way you interact with the world by helping to change the way you react to stimuli.

EMDR is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven as effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches. To date, EMDR therapy has helped millions of people of all ages relieve many types of psychological stress.

No one knows exactly how any form of psychotherapy works neurobiologically or in the brain. However, we do know that when a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. One moment becomes "frozen in time," and remembering a trauma may feel as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven’t changed. Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people.

EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information. Normal information processing is resumed, so following a successful EMDR session, a person no longer relives the images, sounds, and feelings when the event is brought to mind. You still remember what happened, but it is less upsetting. Many types of therapy have similar goals. However, EMDR appears to be similar to what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Therefore, EMDR can be thought of as a physiologically-based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way.

With a few sessions of EMDR, clients can begin to realize the following benefits:

• Traumatic memories

• PTSD

• Relationship problems

• Fears

• Anxiety or depression

• Loss

• Accidents

• Phobias

• Chronic pain

Source: EMDRIA

If you are interested in scheduling an EMDR session, please contact one of our Licensed Counselors today.