EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desenzitization and Reprocesing. EMDR Therapy is an integrative psychotherapeutic approach that works to treat various emotional difficulties caused by life experiences.
Mental health specialists from The Meadowglade, a rehabilitation center specialized in mental health and eating disorders, explain that EMDR activates the innate information processing system for an adaptive resolution of the problem of the patient. Also, it reduces symptoms and emotional distress.
In 1987, Francine Shapiro discovered that voluntary eye movements reduced the intensity of distress from negative thoughts. Next, she began an investigation with traumatized subjects from the Vietnam War and victims of sexual abuse to measure the effectiveness of EMDR. In this way, she discovered that the bilateral stimulation applied with EMDR significantly reduces the symptoms of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
“It is an emotional level job. It makes the cognitive brain come into contact with our emotions and can reprocess them, preventing them from continuing to evoke painful emotions about the event (or events) and generating more adaptive beliefs,” says a therapist from The Meadowglade. “We reduce or eliminate the negative charge associated with trauma and assimilate the associated adaptive information. With EMDR the blockages in the nervous system are lifted activating the natural healing process”.
What is EMDR Therapy like? The Meadowglade specialists indicate that EMDR is not limited to bilateral stimulation, it is a procedure that includes:
· Global collection of client information and its history (associated or not with trauma) · Preparation of the client for the therapeutic process, and stabilization resources · Establishment of the action and treatment protocol
· Desensitization and reprocessing of the trauma or traumas that have brought the client to consultation
· Completion and reassessment of trauma status
“With EMDR we will try to access the dysfunctional memory that has been frozen and stimulate the information processing system to mobilize it towards an adaptive resolution of the trauma, producing changes in the client at a cognitive, physical and emotional level,” says a mental health therapist from The Meadowglade.
In addition to resolving past traumas, The Meadowglade specialists (follow them on Instagram) indicate that through EMDR, theywill process current distressing stimuli and follow up with any future situations that have sufficient potential to elicit similar responses. EMDR offers the opportunity, not only to rework past trauma, but to improve the way the client copes with everyday situations, their skills and their personal resources.
