EMDR Therapy
What is EMDR?
Over 30 years of research shows 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. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, the natural healing process resumes.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories, by actively accessing and processing adverse life experience. During EMDR therapy, the client thinks about emotionally disturbing material (traumatic memories) in brief sequential “doses” while at the same time focusing on an external stimulus (such as tracked eye movements, hand-tapping or auditory stimuli). The outcomes of EMDR therapy include relief of emotional distress, reformulation of negative beliefs, and reduction of physiological arousal.
At Lotus Health and Psychology, our specialist trained EMDR clinicians use their skills for a range of presentations, but are particularly focused on the use of this extraordinary treatment for people who have experienced birth-related trauma, medical trauma (including fertility treatment) and sexual or domestic violence (including childhood abuse).