Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
What is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has proved effective in helping many patients resolve lingering aftereffects of difficult or traumatic experiences. Dr. Francine Shapiro, a psychologist in California, first developed this psychotherapy treatment in 1987 for persons who had experienced severe trauma.
What is EMDR used for?
The treatment, now refined for use with a broad range of issues, has been useful in relieving emotional distress, in decreasing physiological arousal, and in developing more functional beliefs about the self. As research on this method of therapy progresses at many academic institutions across the country, more and more uses for EMDR are being developed.
How does EMDR work?
Although the exact mechanism for how EMDR works is unclear, it is an information processing method that helps integrate elements of difficult experiences that are stored in memory. It appears that for most people, the sights, sounds, smells and visual experiences of trauma are stored in separate areas of the brain. Shapiro hypothesizes that only when these elements are integrated can we free ourselves from their bothersome effects. EMDR works relatively quickly for some people and allows them to do what many of us are able to do only after great lengths of time have passed - that is, remember a difficult experience without feeling the actual fear and anxiety of the original incident.
What can one expect from EMDR therapy sessions?
Depending on the situation that led to the original symptoms, EMDR may require one or many sessions. The treatment is non-intrusive. The client focuses on the problematic experiences with the associated images, beliefs, feelings and body sensations, while moving the eyes back and forth in a systematic way, as directed by the EMDR trained therapist. Some therapists use alternate forms of brain stimulation, such as tapping or sound. The client then often experiences a "connect the dots" type of picture that not only makes emotional patterns more clear and understandable, but also alters negative beliefs and provides emotional release.
Several therapists in the Division of Psychosocial Medicine at National Jewish are trained in EMDR and use it in their practices to help our patients cope with their medical difficulties as well as with other life problems.
More information is available at http://emdr.com or http://emdria.org/.
This information has been approved by Fred Wamboldt, MD (January 2005).
