Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a type of psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of traumatic life experiences. It is is based on the idea that negative thoughts, feelings and behaviors are the result of unprocessed memories. 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 own information processing system naturally wants to move toward mental health and healing. If the system is blocked by the impact of a traumatic 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 are able to help clients activate their natural healing processes.
EMDR therapy can be effective in treating the “everyday” memories that cause people have low self-esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and many other 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.
Many clients feel that their EMDR therapy empowers them by facing and overcoming the very experiences that once held them emotionally captive. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, a clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior often heal to a place of emotional health and resolution of their issues.
Who Can Benefit from EMDR?
Research has established EMDR as effective for post traumatic stress, but many clinicians use and have seen great success using EMDR therapy for panic attacks, complicated grief, dissociative disorders, disturbing memories, phobias, pain disorders, performance anxiety, stress reduction and more.
What is EMDR Therapy like?
EMDR is an integrative approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma. It 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.
The amount of time it takes to complete the course of treatment will depend on the history of the client. Treatment involves addressing past memories, present disturbance and future actions. Confronting all these is needed to begin to alleviate the symptoms and achieve successful treatment. The goal of EMDR therapy is to process the experiences that cause problems, and to include new experiences to encourage full health.
Your EMDR-trained clinician will guide you in learning what is useful to you from an experience, and store it with appropriate emotions in your brain, to provide positive outlooks in the future. Conversely, inappropriate emotions, beliefs, and body sensations will be discarded. Your clinician can help you identify negative emotions, feelings and behaviors that are are caused by unresolved earlier experiences, and are leading you in the wrong directions. The goal of EMDR therapy is to leave you with the emotions, understanding, and perspectives that will lead to healthy and useful behaviors and interactions.
EMDR Therapy at Thriveworks Blacksburg
Two of our clinicians are trained and certified in EMDR Therapy. We have daytime and evening appointments available for your convenience. Call 540-376-3348 now to schedule an appointment soon! Our expert, caring counselors are here to help you move on from the things that are preventing you from enjoying a satisfying, fulfilled life. A life where you thrive.
