EMDR is an integrative therapy because it synthesizes elements of many traditional psychological orientations, such as psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, experiential, physiological, and interpersonal therapies.

EMDR is a procedure to rapidly help individuals resolve painful or disturbing memories. It is a relatively new development in psychology, originally designed to help survivors of trauma. EMDR is effective with both adults and children. There are a number of phases in an EMDR treatment, but the majority of the focus is on discussing a particular memory, while alternately having the client move their eyes in a side-to-side motion. This motion, called "Bilateral Stimulation," appears to help facilitate communication between both hemispheres of the brain.

EMDR is based on the idea that some of the fears we all face are merely earlier life experiences that are locked in our nervous system. These are stored as trauma in the brain, in the form of memory networks.

In trauma, great or small, information processing is disrupted because the integration of components of an event is blocked. As a consequence, when the memory is brought to mind, the feelings are re-experienced rather than simply remembered. This can be either conscious or unconscious and accounts for much of our emotional pain.

EMDR can help to restart and accelerate processing. When this happens, it is possible to learn what you need to know from these difficult experiences and discard the rest. Once this is done, you can choose your actions rather than being propelled by automatic re-actions.

EMDR accelerates information processing and can be applied to a wide range of the problems that hold us back in life. As science uncovers, more and more, how the brain/mind functions, we are learning that psychotherapy which focuses on trauma-resolution of all kinds actually helps and heals an extensive range of maladies not previously thought to be trauma-related. EMDR helps top further facilitate this process.

Due to the historical success of applying EMDR to certain areas of distress, EMDR psychotherapists now routinely treat clinical problems where EMDR has been seen to produce considerable success:

• Posttraumatic stress
• Acute stress
• Generalized anxiety
• Depression and depressed mood
• Acting-out problems in children and adolescents
• Sleep disruptions and nightmares
• Phobias
• Substance use and impulse control disruptions of many kinds
• Anger management problems
• Chronic pain management
• Abuse and Trauma
• Grief and Loss
• Relationship Concerns
• Self Esteem
• Codependency
• Performance Enhancement

EMDR Used In Combination

Some of the methods I combine with EMDR to increase its effectiveness include hypnotherapy, neuro linguistic programming (NLP), and cognitive/behavioral techniques.

EMDR Used By Itself

Some pf my EMDR clients are referred to me by other therapists to work on unresolved trauma. When this happens, we will first meet in an initial 45-minute session so I can understand your goals and expectations and describe the procedure. The second meeting is a double session to see how you respond to the technique. After that, we schedule meetings at a pace that makes sense to both of us if you plan to remain involved with your referring therapist during EMDR. It is not necessary to do EMDR every week to derive significant benefit.