What is EMDR Therapy?

In a recent doc­u­men­tary series titled, The Me You Can’t See, Oprah Win­frey shared the sto­ries of peo­ple who strug­gle with their men­tal health. One of the sto­ries she shares is that of Prince Har­ry who speaks about a form of ther­a­py called EMDR (Eye Move­ment Desen­si­ti­za­tion and Reprocessing).

EMDR was devel­oped in 1987 by psy­chol­o­gist Francine Shapiro. While walk­ing in a park, Shapiro sus­pect­ed that her eye move­ments were less­en­ing the dis­tress of her own trau­mat­ic memories.

The Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) Behav­ioral Health team has five ther­a­pists trained in this ther­a­py, includ­ing Tiffaney Rains-Eaton, MS, LCPC, NCC. Rains-Eaton said EMDR, like any new ther­a­py, took time to val­i­date, but is now used to help treat trau­ma, dis­tress, and help refor­mu­late neg­a­tive beliefs.

With EMDR ther­a­py, patients take part in sev­er­al ses­sions dur­ing which they are asked to focus on exter­nal stim­u­la­tion (visu­al, audio, or tac­tile) while inter­nal­ly think­ing about or focus­ing on tar­get­ed mem­o­ries or cog­ni­tions. The goal of EMDR is to reduce the dis­tress­ing emo­tions that par­tic­u­lar mem­o­ries and trig­ger­ing sit­u­a­tions bring on.

“I fre­quent­ly sum­ma­rize EMDR as allow­ing your brain to reprocess trau­ma and expe­ri­ences in a safe set­ting. The move­ments of the patient’s eyes are com­pa­ra­ble to what hap­pens to our eyes while in REM sleep (in which we dream). As we reprocess, those things become less over­whelm­ing or debil­i­tat­ing. It helps remove the ​‘blocks’ that many of us feel we have,” explained Rains-Eaton.

Orig­i­nal­ly uti­lized for PTSD, Rains-Eaton said, over time EMDR has become an effec­tive ther­a­py for oth­er diag­noses as well.

“EMDR has def­i­nite­ly become more wide­ly used and stud­ied in recent years,” she shared. ​“The more it has been used and stud­ied, the more lever­age and recog­ni­tion it has gained as being an effec­tive treat­ment modality.”

Deter­min­ing if you are a can­di­date for EMDR is a dis­cus­sion to have with your ther­a­pist or provider, but Rains-Eaton said it’s impor­tant to ensure you are work­ing with some­one who is trained in EMDR therapy.

“Basi­cal­ly, any­one who needs to expe­ri­ence heal­ing of any kind may be a poten­tial can­di­date for EMDR. How­ev­er, a provider needs to be trained prop­er­ly and assess readi­ness for this treat­ment before any­one starts EMDR,” she said.

For more infor­ma­tion about our Behav­ioral Health ser­vices, vis­it https://​quin​cymed​group​.com/​m​e​d​i​c​a​l​-​s​e​r​v​i​c​e​s​/​b​e​h​a​v​i​o​r​a​l​-​h​e​alth/.