What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR is an acronym for Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing

EMDR is a trauma therapy that originated in Australia 25 years ago and has been adapted for both single incident trauma (PTSD) and developmental trauma (Complex-PTSD) and is now used world wide to help people heal from all kinds of traumatic experiences.

Some people experience a single life event that has exceeded their body’s capacity to process in that moment. When that happens the traumatic memory becomes trapped in the body and cannot be processed and so they need help to recover. We call that Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

Other people may experience many years of harmful experiences which can also lead to trauma and we call that Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or CPTSD. This kind of trauma is often referred to as “A thousand paper cuts”

This kind of trauma, C-PTSD, is the most common for people who have been bullied and who have experienced narcissistic abuse. Depending on your age of development when the abuse started it can lead to lifelong challenges in relationship and a distorted sense of self.

Both of these kinds of trauma, PTSD and C-PTSD cannot be processed and healed by the intellect alone – no matter how intelligent and insightful you may be. Trauma lives in the body and is experienced by the body in the form of triggers.

EMDR allows us to gently establish connection with these traumatic memories in the body and process them safely.

For more detailed information about the science of EMDR please visit https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/

To schedule an appointment with Pam to talk more, please email [email protected]