What is EMDR?
EMDR focuses on the brain's remarkable ability to learn, adapt, and rewire itself. This process, known as “Adaptive Information Processing” (AIP), allows the brain to continuously update memory networks, preserving what is meaningful from past experiences while letting go of outdated or unnecessary information.
However, disturbing events often become emotionally charged in a way that disrupts this adaptive learning. These events can become isolated, disconnected from more positive experiences, and when reactivated in the present, they distort our current perceptions, behaviors, and emotions. For example, when a partner criticizes us, even though we know our worth, the emotional charge from past negative experiences can make us feel worthless.
EMDR helps identify these negative emotional networks and uses bilateral stimulation—such as eye movements or tapping—to activate the brain’s adaptive learning system. This process helps consolidate the memory network, allowing us to retain healthy, adaptive emotions and release old, unhelpful sensations and beliefs. As a result, we not only intellectually understand our worth—we begin to truly feel it.
What to Expect?
Overall Treatment Planning
Clients come to therapy with specific concerns, and the clinician's role is to help them understand the dynamics of these issues and how to manage them adaptively. A comprehensive treatment plan will be created to meet the client’s goals. Within this plan, EMDR therapy, along with other therapeutic approaches, will be utilized to achieve the desired outcomes.
EMDR Procedures
The client will be guided through a series of questions to access and activate the negative experience, along with the desired adaptive resolution. Bilateral stimulation—such as rapid eye movements or tapping—will be used during the process. Clients are encouraged to simply "free associate," allowing their brain to naturally process and work through the experience.
The process involves alternating sets of eye movements with brief reports from the client about what they are experiencing. EMDR processing continues until the past experience has been transformed into a more adaptive, present-day perspective. For long-standing issues, this may require several sessions.
Integration
After processing the disturbing experiences, the clinician and client will work together to integrate the new insights and perspectives into daily life, helping to solidify lasting change and growth.