If you’ve heard about it but haven’t researched it, you may wonder what EMDR therapy is. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a mental health treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories.
EMDR therapy facilitates the processing of traumatic memories to bring them to an adaptive resolution. When information processing is enhanced by EMDR therapy, new associations are forged between traumatic memories and more adaptive memories or information. After successful treatment using EMDR therapy, affective distress in clients should be relieved, along with a reformulation of previously negative beliefs and a reduction of physiological arousal. Are you looking for an EMDR therapy program in Florida? Contact Gulf Breeze Recovery Center today by calling 833.551.2304 or reaching out to our team online.
What Is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR therapy is a form of psychotherapy that enables clients to heal from emotional distress and other symptoms resulting from going through disturbing life experiences and holding on to those traumatic memories. Many studies show that EMDR therapy provides benefits to clients that would take clients years undergoing other types of intervention to experience.
It is widely assumed that severe emotional trauma requires a long time to heal. However, EMDR therapy shows that the mind can heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma.
How Does EMDR Therapy Work?
When you cut your skin, your body works to heal the wound. If a foreign object irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the irritating object is removed, healing resumes. In EMDR therapy, a similar sequence occurs with mental processes. Using detailed protocols and procedures of EMDR therapy, clinicians can help clients activate their natural healing processes. EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment:
- History taking and treatment planning
- Preparation
- Assessment
- Desensitization
- Installation
- Body scan
- Closure
- Reevaluation
Eye movements, or other bilateral stimulation, are used during one phase. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, they ask the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use their eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across their field of vision. As this happens, internal associations arise, and the client begins to process the memory.
In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of traumatic events is transformed on an emotional level. Unlike other forms of talk therapy, the insights a client gains in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinical interpretation but from the client’s accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. A client may even conclude that EMDR therapy leaves them feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their emotional or psychological wounds have not just closed but have transformed.
When Should You Consider an EMDR Therapy Program?
In general, EMDR therapy is recommended for people struggling with overwhelming traumatic memories. These people may also be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). You may also find EMDR therapy particularly helpful if you have difficulty sharing the trauma you’ve gone through with therapists or people close to you.
While initially developed to treat trauma and PTSD, EMDR therapy may also help relieve symptoms of other mental health issues, especially those intertwined with symptoms of past trauma. This type of intervention may also be a component of comprehensive mental health treatment programs, especially ones created with a trauma-informed approach to care, such as those that treat substance use disorders (SUDs).
Learn More About Gulf Breeze Recovery Center’s EMDR Therapy Program
If you’re searching for an EMDR therapy program in Florida, contact Gulf Breeze Recovery Center today. Call 833.551.2304 or reach out to our team online. We’re here to help.