Disturbing life events can often seem like they leave us with a life sentence where we are doomed to suffer from fear, anxiety, depression, and horror. But EMDR is a proven therapy that helps us heal more rapidly and successfully from trauma than most people think.
The traumas we suffer often stay with us affecting our dreams, our ability to sleep, how we connect with others, and how we go through the world on a daily basis. Yet EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) has been shown in countless clinical studies to be a rapid and incredibly effective treatment for PTSD.
More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy. Some of the studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions. There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective form of treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense.
Much like the body recovers after being cut or wounded, or brain heals from trauma.
If the body is wounded it naturally works to heal and close the wound. Yet if there is a foreign object or something impacting the wound’s ability to heal it will fester and continue to cause pain. Once the wound is cleaned out, the body naturally moves to health and wellness. The brain has a similar natural impulse to heal. Yet if the nervous system is similarly blocked or imbalanced by the fallout of a disturbing life event, the emotional wound causes festering, pain, and often leaves us in immense suffering. EMDR helps to remove the blocks to the brain’s healing process so the brain can activate it's natural healing process bringing fast relief to the suffering caused by the disturbing life events most of us suffer.
EMDR therapy brings relief from the disturbing life events that lead to low self esteem, feelings of powerlessness, and the many issues that bring us to therapy
One of the most impactful outcomes of EMDR therapy is client’s radical shift in self perceptions. Rather than simply treating the pain of traumatic events, EMDR often helps client’s process their experiences at a deeply emotional level. This leads to a radical change in the meaning the ascribe to what they’ve been through. By working with cognition and memory, clients often walk away from EMDR therapy feeling like their experiences have actually empowered them. Where they might have felt like a powerless victim before entering therapy, they often leave feeling that they survived and they are stronger from the experience.