have you heard of EMDR therapy?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is truly a revolutionary form of therapy that is changing the lives of millions of clients all over the world. During this highly manualized therapy, your body’s natural ability to heal through rapid eye movement (REM) is strategically utilized to desensitize yourself and reprocess painful and traumatic memories. Through the act of reprocessing, you are better able to add these once painful memories to your self-concept without the added challenging symptoms that may have once been associated. 

REM is mimicked in online therapy through bilateral stimulation. Bilateral stimulation is any sort of stimulus that is provided or conducted in an alternating right-left pattern, such as with tapping the shoulders or tops of knees, or even by listening to auditory tones. There are many different ways to access bilateral stimulation. You and your therapist will work together to determine the most healing and comfortable option for your EMDR online therapy.

EMDR was designed to help individuals heal and reprocess traumatic events from their lives. Trauma is variable, and EMDR is effective at treating “small t” trauma and “large T” trauma. “Small t” traumas are events that may not be traumatic in everyone’s opinion but are still deeply troubling events to the individual. “Large T” traumas are more agreed upon traumatic events, such as catastrophic loss of life and natural disasters. Everyone has their own personal definitions of what is traumatic. EMDR can help with them all.

EMDR is a manualized form of therapy. This means that your therapist is carefully observing and gauging your mental state during EMDR while helping to move you through the various stages of the therapeutic process. It can take several sessions to work through the many stages of EMDR therapy, but every client’s experience will be unique. Some people find relief in as little as two or three EMDR sessions. Some people need closer to six or seven EMDR sessions.

People are often surprised by how quickly EMDR can provide them with symptom relief compared to traditional talk therapy, and this can be attributed to the systematic way that EMDR is provided to every client. EMDR can also be used in conjunction with other types of therapies. You and your therapist will discuss how to best incorporate EMDR into your healing journey.