An Overview on EMDR Therapy

EMDR Therapy

EMDR therapy, also known as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, is a method of mental health care. In order to process painful memories using this technique, you must move your eyes in a precise manner. Your recovery from trauma or other upsetting life events is the aim of EMDR. EMDR is a relatively recent therapy approach when compared to other types. In 1989, the first clinical study examining EMDR was conducted. Since EMDR’s creation, many of clinical trials have demonstrated its efficacy and ability to treat a person more quickly than many other techniques.

If you need EMDR Therapy, don’t hesitate to visit Crystal Arber. Many people use EMDR when feeling anxious or upset, but also when facing challenges and challenges. At their clinic they have the most experienced therapists who have the expertise to help you.

Who needs to have EMDR therapy?

People with a variety of mental health issues can benefit from EMDR. Adults of all ages, adolescents, and adolescents can gain from this treatment. Some medical professionals are also experts in EMDR for kids.

 

Why is this treatment used?

It’s not necessary to go into great detail about a traumatic event during EMDR therapy. Instead, EMDR focuses on altering the feelings, ideas, or actions that follow a stressful encounter (trauma). This enables your brain’s inherent mending mechanism to continue. The terms “mind” and “brain,” which are sometimes used interchangeably, are not the same. One of your body’s organs is your brain. The collection of memories, experiences, beliefs, and thoughts in your mind is what makes you who you are.

The structure of your brain determines how your mind functions. Networks of brain cells in various locations communicate within that structure. This is especially true for passages that ask you to use your senses and memory. The collaboration between those locations is sped up and made simpler by the networking. Because of this, your senses—including sights, sounds, scents, tastes, and feels—can jog vivid memories.

 

Adaptive Information Processing

The Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, a hypothesis regarding how your brain stores memories, is the foundation of EMDR. This idea acknowledges that your brain retains normal and traumatic memories differently. Francine Shapiro, PhD, who invented EMDR, is the author of this theory.

Your brain stores memories easily when things go according to plan. Additionally, it networks them so that they connect to other memories you have. That networking doesn’t function well while upsetting or disturbing situations are occurring. There can be a gap between what you feel, hear, and see and what your brain stores in memory through language when the brain goes “offline.”

Frequently, the way your brain stores memories of trauma prevents good healing. Trauma is like a wound that hasn’t been given enough time to heal in your brain. Your brain didn’t get the signal that the threat was past since it didn’t have a chance to recover.

Recent events can reinforce traumatic memories from the past and reinforce unfavorable experiences repeatedly. That interferes with the connections between your memories and sensations. Additionally, it harms your mind. Your mind is also more sensitive to anything you saw, heard, smelt, or felt during a traumatic incident, just as your body is more sensitive to pain from an injury.

This applies to both remembered events and memories that have been repressed. Your mind tries to repress memories in order to avoid accessing them because they are painful or upsetting, similar to how you learn not to touch a hot fire because it burns your hand. The suppression is imperfect, so undesirable symptoms, feelings, and behaviors can still be brought on by the “injury.”

 

How common is EMDR therapy?

Everywhere in the world, EMDR therapy is widely used. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense in the US list EMDR as a “best practice” for treating PTSD in veterans. Numerous clinical trials, research investigations, and academic papers have been written about EMDR. The World Health Organization (WHO), as well as government organizations and agencies in the UK, Australia, and Germany, among others, have all given it their official approval.

 

Is EMDR controversial?

There is some debate concerning the reasons why EMDR is effective. Dr. Francine Shapiro, who discovered the eye movement technique she later utilized to construct this therapeutic procedure, eventually came up with a working theory about how your brain remembers memories.

That debate, however, is not focused on the question of whether or if EMDR is effective. Numerous research studies and controlled trials have examined EMDR and demonstrated its efficacy.

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