What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a structured psychological therapy that helps people process trauma and other distressing experiences.
It’s one of the most well-researched trauma treatments available and supports people to move beyond stuck patterns and long-standing emotional distress.
People often associate EMDR with…’waving your fingers around’, and whilst it is a very powerful therapy, there is nothing ‘woo woo’ about it.
You can think of EMDR, a little bit like REM sleep. Have you ever noticed someone’s eyelids moving when they sleep? Just like REM sleep is essential for our brain, so is the ability to process memories.
What I personally love about EMDR, is it works on the AIP (Adaptive Information Processing) model. This is the belief that the brain has an innate drive toward mental health and the resolution of psychological disturbance, just as the rest of the body is geared toward healing from physical injury (Shapiro, 2018)
The following videos may help you to understand how EMDR works.
The EMDR Association of Australia states,“EMDR is one of the most researched psychotherapeutic approaches for PTSD. Since 1989 over 20 controlled clinical studies have found EMDR to effectively decrease or eliminate the symptoms of PTSD for the majority of clients and it is more efficient.
The Australian Psychological Society (APS) has recently noted EMDR as a Level 1 treatment for PTSD in their recent published results for ‘Evidence-Based Psychological Interventions: A Literature Review’ (2010) for both young people and adults. This is the highest rating that can be applied to a specific therapeutic approach. Additional research has focussed on use of EMDR for Depression and Anxiety and numerous other issues with extremely good results.”
EMDR has also been researched to be effective for many other presentations than only PTSD, including, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, personality disorders, complicated grief, sexual or physical abuse, performance anxiety, stress reduction, disturbing memories and phobias.
If you’re a research nerd like me, check it out here