EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It is a unique, powerful therapy that helps people recover from problems triggered by traumatic events in their lives and the problems they have caused, like flashbacks, nightmares, upsetting thoughts or images, depression or anxiety.
It can stop difficult memories causing so much distress by helping the brain to reprocess them properly, working with memory to heal the legacy of past pain. EMDR therapy is best known for treating PTSD but can help with a range of mental health conditions in people of all ages including depression, anxiety and low self esteem. EMDR can also effectively reduce performance anxiety in highly functioning individuals, for example to improve athletic performance after injury or overcome anxiety related to public speaking at work.
When a person is involved in a traumatic event, they may feel overwhelmed and their brain may be unable to fully process what is going on. The memory of the event seems to become “stuck” so that it remains very intense and vivid. The person can re-experience what they saw, heard and smelt and the full force of the distress they felt whenever the memory comes to mind.
EMDR aims to help the brain “unstick” and reprocess the memory properly so that it is no longer so intense. It also helps to desensitise the person to the emotional impact of the memory, so that they can think about the event without experiencing such strong feelings.
It does this by asking the person to recall the traumatic event while they also move their eyes from side-to-side, hear a sound in each ear alternately, or feel a tap on each hand alternately. These side-to-side sensations seem to effectively stimulate the “stuck” processing system in the brain so that it can reprocess the information more like an ordinary memory, reducing its intensity. This allows the person to distance themselves from it and begin to remember the event in a more helpful and manageable way.
Internationally recognised, EMDR therapy is endorsed by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence; the World Health Organisation; The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies; the NHS (in the UK); and many other bodies.
The information on this page is taken from the EMDR Association website. You can find more detailed information here and also access some animated videos that further explain EMDR.