Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing (EMDR)

EMDR is a psychotherapy treatment developed by Dr Francine Shapiro, that helps to relieve psychological stress and trauma.

If we become overwhelmed by a traumatic experience or a stressful event and are unable to have successful completion of our fight, flight responses, our brain becomes overloaded with the stimuli that it is trying to process. The event then holds a great emotional charge keeping the emotion and the memory of the trauma at the forefront of the brain which can become easily triggered.

EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, either in the form of rapid eye movements from side to side or by tapping both sides of the body. This is done while the person simultaneously holds a picture of the event in their mind, thinking of the belief about themselves that accompanies that picture and the emotional charge it elicits. After rounds of bilateral stimulation, the emotional charge and the picture lessons, allowing it to be finally processed in the brain where it is no longer psychologically disruptive. Make it stand out.