EMDR Therapy: Healing for Trauma and Dysfunction

There’s a proven therapy that provides permanent relief to people who have experienced trauma and live with the impact on a daily basis. A treatment called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one of the most effective ways to address trauma and the resulting dysfunction. It’s so effective, EMDR enables clients to achieve relief 60-80% faster compared to traditional therapy.

How does EMDR work?

When something traumatic happens, it gets stored in the brain without a time or date stamp. As a result, the person who has a traumatic experience can feel like a​ traumatic event is about to happen at any moment or is currently happening. Things that happen in the present can trigger an emotional activation because they remind the person of the past traumatic event. Through EMDR, the client can change the way those traumatic memories are stored so he or she can know and feel that the event is actually in the past. This removes the ability of triggers in the present to cause an emotional reaction. As a result, the client can be more present, simply reacting to what is actually happening now instead of having an overreaction based on past traumas.

This approach to therapy relies on tapping into memory networks that are both the source of dysfunction and the pathway to good mental health. Your online Christian counselor will educate you on how the memory networks function. Using proven protocols, your therapist will give you the tools to access these memory networks so you can move them to a place where they won’t cause emotional distress.

Does EMDR work?

Researchers used imaging during an EMDR session to show that this process brings about neurobiological changes. (Pagani, 2014)

EMDR therapy has been used with a wide variety of client presentations and is one of the most researched methods of contemporary psychotherapy. In fact, EMDR therapy has been empirically shown to be effective in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). By changing the way the traumatic memories are stored, EMDR relieves the symptoms of trauma permanently.

What happens during EMDR therapy?

One of the keys to successful EMDR therapy is accessing disturbing memories while the client remains mentally present. This is one major difference between EMDR and therapies in which the client is regressed. In EMDR therapy, the therapist helps the client find earlier memories that are fueling the present distress. Next, the therapist guides the client to assess how the earlier memories are currently stored. It’s crucial to determine how those early memories are manifesting themselves because they’re linked to the client’s current symptoms. The therapist always asks the client about what is happening now rather than focusing on how the person felt at the time of the traumatic event. The therapist wants to know what happens with the client in the present as they remember that earlier traumatic event because the emotional response is appearing in their life as an overreaction to present events. (Deb Kennard, 2015)