Arizona EMDR Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a treatment method that is effective for resolving emotional difficulties caused by disturbing, difficult, or frightening life experiences. EMDR therapy has been used to help children and adults overcome traumatic events and other problems and symptoms.

EMDR helps process the troubling thoughts, feelings, and memories so that individuals can return to their normal developmental tasks and prior levels of coping. EMDR is being used with other problems such as attention deficits (AD/HD), anxiety, and depressive disorders.

When individuals are traumatized, have upsetting experiences, or even repeated failures, they lose a sense of control over their lives. This can result in symptoms of anxiety, depression, irritability, anger, guilt, and/or behavioral problems. We recognize that events such as accidents, abuse, violence, death, and natural disasters are traumatic but we do not always recognize the ways they affect and influence our everyday lives. Even common upsetting events such as divorce, work problems, peer difficulties, failures, and family problems can deeply affect an individual's sense of security, self-esteem, and development.

Most experts agree that one way to get "unstuck" and free from the symptoms is through exposure to the traumatic experience. This means to face the memories or troubling events until they are no longer disturbing. EMDR combines elements of several well-established clinical theoretical orientations (e.g., psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral, client-centered) together with "bilateral stimulation" in a unique and novel way to dissipate the upset associated with the experience.

Bilateral stimulation refers to the use of alternating, right-left tracking that may take the form of eye movements, tones or music delivered to each ear, or tactile stimulation, such as alternating hand taps. Creative alternatives have been also developed for children that incorporate the bilateral stimulation, using puppets, stories, dance, and art. (Guess we therapists could have picked an easier term like "back and forth" therapy, huh?)

In addition to having read this article, I encourage you to visit www.EMDR.org for more information, resources, and articles about this counseling approach. Certainly, feel free to contact me if you have more questions about it. Because EMDR is a specialty and requires specific levels of training, you will want to learn about my experience as an EMDR therapist here.

---

®