What is EMDR?

EMDR can help you to heal memories that feel painful, no matter how many years have passed and it can help to change entrenched negative belief systems (e.g. I am not good enough). You don't need a diagnosis of PTSD, for EMDR to be beneficial. Often I use EMDR to complement other types of common therapuetic approaches, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).

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How Do You Do EMDR?

In the first session, I'll take a history of your difficulties and how they are affecting your current life. If we agree that EMDR will be useful for you, I will construct a description of your problem that includes an image or picture that represents the past event, your negative beliefs about yourself in relationship to the event, how you would prefer to think about yourself in relation to the event (positive beliefs), your emotions associated with the event, and your physical sensations associated with the event. You will also be asked to give numerical ratings to your degree of upset and the credibility of the positive beliefs, so your progress can be monitored during the session.

 

I will also make sure that you learn some skills to regulate/manage your emotions, which we will focus on in sessions e.g. relaxation, mindfulness, breathing, safe place (this is a super important step).

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The Eye Movement Bit..

During the procedure using the eye movements (or other kinds of attentional stimulation if eye movements are not appropriate in your case) - I will be sitting beside and facing you. I will ask you to bring to mind the picture of the experience, that is bothering you along with the negative self‑statement, the emotions, and the physical sensations. You will be asked to hold this in mind as best you can while following my fingers, which are moving back and forth. After a series of roughly 30‑50 eye movements (or more), I will ask you to stop, let go of the image (or thought) for a second, take a deep breath, and then notice and describe briefly what thoughts, feelings, or images arise for you, then we will continue with eye movements. 

 

You will go through the process of moving your eyes, pausing, and reflecting several times during the session. Typically, the images, emotions, and sensations you experience change as you go through this process. Assuming that your thoughts, feelings, images, and physical sensations become less distressing, I will ask you to bring up the positive self-statement and will use EMDR to help you begin to associate this new way of thinking about yourself with the original troubling image. If your level of distress continues to be high toward the end of the session, I will work with you to help you calm down and prepare you to continue your work at your next session.

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We will know, quite quickly, whether EMDR is going to be useful for you. Some people have profound and quick results in 1 session. Others, 2-4, others 6-8 and for others EMDR will be part of a longer term approach to therapy. 

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There are no guarantees in therapy, of course, but I will discuss with you, what I think is going to be the most effective pathways for your treatment and what you feel most comfortable with.