Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

EMDR therapy is a therapeutic strategy that has been very successful in helping people who struggle with emotional disturbances. EMDR has shown me time and time again to be an accelerated healing process. In my opinion, EMDR therapy is the closest thing to a magic wand that I have found in counselling.

Why EMDR?

EMDR therapy is especially effective for male clients. Generally speaking, it is more difficult for men to talk about their problems – EMDR does not require that a client share every detail of their experiences with their therapist. It is a solution focused type of therapy which allows for healing to occur at a very fast rate and it does not require homework in-between sessions. EMDR uses a systematic approach for working through the majority of problems clients face with a beginning and an end to each part. Clients only need to work on the specific issues they want to. EMDR was initially thought of as a treatment strategy for PTSD (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder) as it is so effective for treating severe trauma. It very may likely be able to help you.

In my practice, I have successfully used EMDR therapy to treat clients suffering with:

• Anxiety
• Social Anxiety
• Low Self-esteem
• Problems with Confidence
• Depression
• Panic Disorders
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
• Sleep Disturbances
• Trauma
• Problem Drinking or Drug Using
• Self-harming Behaviours
• Relationships
• Old Memories
• Childhood Abuse
• Divorce

How EMDR Therapy Works

After much research, it has been realized that EMDR is very successful in treating anxiety as well as many other areas that everyday people struggle with. It was first used and researched with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with war veterans who had returned to California after the Vietnam War.

Through accessing the nervous system, we tap into a healing process that the body already does naturally. The body is designed with the ability to heal itself. When you get a cut, you don’t have to think your way through healing the cut. The body already knows what it wants to do to heal the cut. A similar response happens when the therapeutic strategy EMDR therapy is applied. When the brain and body know what information to work on, the healing happens naturally. The body will keep the information it finds helpful and heals (or releases) the information that it finds unhelpful.

EMDR therapy can be thought of as accessing old experiences or beliefs that happened earlier at some point in life and reorganizing the information so that it can be filed more appropriately. Irrational beliefs form out of emotional experiences at any point in life – be it from childhood trauma or from situations that occurred as an adult. Feelings such as of being out of control or not being safe in a situation will leave a lasting impression. Often this results in symptoms of depression and anxiety. This information gets stored in a separate filing cabinet in the mind. The problem lies in the fact that those old beliefs act like a filter for future experiences and cause emotional disturbance later in life.

EMDR therapy allows both sides of the adult brain to access the information in that separate filing cabinet and reorganizes it so that it can be filed more appropriately. Information becomes filed with no emotion attached and the intensity is released. Any disturbing memories or thoughts become filed like an old memory and can be set aside.

Memories, body sensations, or beliefs that cause distressing emotional responses (what one might call being triggered), are reprocessed and become restored into healthy, non-distressing form. We become informed by our memories, not controlled by them.

Click here to read a New York Times article on EMDR Therapy

Ready for a change? Contact Healing Solutions today and learn more about how EMDR Therapy can help you.

EMDR Therapy Intensive Sessions

EMDR Therapy has made huge advancements over the past few years as therapists and clients continue to see very effective results for healing emotional problems and resolving past events that seem to haunt clients. EMDR Therapy and Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy are now one of the 2 therapies recognized by The World Health Organization.

Healing Solutions is very happy to offer EMDR Therapy Intensive Sessions. As clinicians come to understand more about the effectiveness of this type of work, EMDR Therapy Intensives are now beginning to flourish internationally.

• A client can book anywhere from 2 – 6 hour sessions in one day.
• For 6 hour sessions, will have 3 hours of EMDR Therapy with a half hour break and then another 3 hours of EMDR Therapy.
• One to two individual 1 hour sessions are required before hand to get a client’s history and to teach tools to manage any emotions that might come up after the session.
• Some clients may like to book 2 days in a row and I am happy to accomidate this when possible.
• It is not possible to know how many EMDR Therapy Intensive days will be needed as each client’s life history is unique.

Many of my clients over the years have known that by the time they come see me, they are ready to just get in and do the work. With EMDR Therapy Intensive sessions, the amount of time you spend in therapy could very possibly be just a few days.