EMDR Intensives
What Is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is an evidenced based psychotherapy treatment that was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980’s. EMDR is used to help people process traumatic and stressful memories and experiences. EMDR can also be helpful in the following areas:
Anxiety
Complex/Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Depression
Emotional Regulation
Grief and Loss
Performance Anxiety
Phobias and Fears
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
How It Works:
Neuroscientists believe it is the bilateral stimulation (BLS) movements (side to side eye movements and/or tapping) done in EMDR that helps reduce the stress level in the amygdala so that traumatic material can be exposed, processed, and integrated. Allowing for the emotional physical charge to be greatly reduced and/or eliminated.
EMDR works to integrate traumatic material so that it no longer distorts the way we see and interact with other people, and the environment around us. It helps to greatly reduce and/or eliminate the need for maladaptive coping behaviors/patterns or problematic relationships.
What Is an EMDR Intensive ?
A 3-hour session where EMDR is utilized to target specific traumatic events, and/or a recurring negative cognitions or beliefs. Intensives efficiently compacts the work generally done in several 50-minute sessions. Instead of starting and stopping there is a continuous processing which allows people to dig deeper and faster at the root cause, to desensitize and to reprocess the negative cognitions, and emotions.
Clients are seated and asked to focus on a specific memory or experience. A light bar moves slowly from side to side, and the client follows the light with their eyes for a short period of time. While watching the light, the client allows whatever thoughts, images, emotions, or body sensations arise to come and go naturally. After a few minutes, the light is paused and the client shares what came up. That material then becomes the focus for the next round of eye movements. This cycle repeats multiple times, gradually moving deeper into the memory, followed by discussion and reflection.
“The best way out is through.”
-Robert Frost