EMDR

When your brain fails to process the memory of a traumatic event, PTSD develops, along with a host of negative emotional and behavioral symptoms. Krystal Donley, PMHNP, and the licensed therapists at Desert View Counseling & Consulting can help you overcome the effect of past trauma with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). The team includes therapists trained through the EMDR International Association, the highest accrediting body for EMDR therapy. To learn more about how EMDR can help you overcome trauma, call the office in Phoenix or Peoria, Arizona, or request an in-person or telehealth appointment today.

What is EMDR?

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR, is a type of therapy that helps you heal from the long-lasting emotional and psychological effects of trauma. When you suffer intense trauma or emotional distress, your brain doesn’t always process the information properly. 

As a result, the brain can’t heal, you can’t get over the trauma, and you keep having symptoms, such as anxiety, flashbacks, and anger, or other behavioral reactions.

EMDR is carefully structured to help you reconnect with the memories, emotions, and sensations associated with the trauma. As you think about one specific aspect of your trauma, your therapist simultaneously introduces sounds, taps, and visual cues that you follow with your eyes, moving your eyes from side to side.

Moving your eyes diverts your brain’s focus and reduces your stress while remembering a small piece of the trauma. That allows your brain to reprocess the experience, changing the way the memory is stored and desensitizing the psychological stress you once experienced. The traumatic memories remain, but you no longer have such intense emotional or behavioral reactions.

What conditions does EMDR treat?

EMDR was initially used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Many studies show that EMDR is exceptionally effective for relieving PTSD — it’s recognized as an effective trauma treatment by the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization, and the U.S. Department of Defense.

However, EMDR’s benefits aren’t limited to PTSD. It can effectively relieve the distress caused by many types of trauma, large and small, including:

• Childhood abuse and neglect
• Substance use disorders (dependency and addiction)
• Repetitive relationship problems
• Work issues
• Sports performance
• Bullying
• Dental phobias
• Depression
• Bipolar disorder
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Trauma underlies many of the experiences that leave you with PTSD-like anxiety and emotional reactions. You can overcome them with EMDR.

What are the benefits of EMDR?

The biggest benefit of EMDR is that it successfully helps you overcome traumatic experiences. This type of therapy also produces great results in fewer sessions than traditional psychotherapy (talk therapy). Some people need as few as three EMDR sessions to overcome the memories of one incident.

You also don’t have to spend time exploring past memories. You only need to focus briefly on a memory while EMDR supports the brain’s natural healing ability.

To learn if EMDR can help you, call Desert View Counseling & Consulting or book online today.