Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is a therapy that aims to process traumatic and distressing memories.
EMDR can be effective for a vast array of concerns. It is often the case that anxiety, mood concerns, eating concerns and eating disorders, low self-esteem, phobias, substance use, and of course Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are caused by distressing memories. EMDR can be extremely effective in helping to process these memories and shift the sensations, body sensations, and negative beliefs that are stored with these memories.
WHAT IS EMDR?
EMDR was initially developed in 1987 for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and is guided by the Adaptive Information Processing model (Shapiro 2007).
This model suggests symptoms of PTSD and other mental health disorders result from past disturbing experiences that continue to cause distress because the memory was not adequately processed. These unprocessed memories are understood to contain the emotions, thoughts, negative beliefs and physical sensations that occurred at the time of the event. When the memories are triggered, these stored disturbing elements are experienced and cause negative or distressing symptoms.
Unlike other treatments that focus on directly altering the emotions, thoughts and responses resulting from distressing experiences, EMDR therapy focuses directly on the memory, and is intended to change the way that the memory is stored in the brain, thus reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms. EMDR incorporates bilateral eye movements that are typical of rapid eye movement (REM) sleep to allow the brain to process distressing memories.
EMDR has a very strong empirical evidence base and is recognised by the American Psychological Association (APA), and the World Health Organisation (WHO).
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