What Is Trauma & How Does it Impact People? 

Traumatic experiences overwhelm a person’s ability to effectively process a difficult or challenging situation. The mental and emotional wounds of trauma are much more like physical injuries than many people realize. Just like a bruise, cut, burn, or other wound, the emotional and cognitive impact of trauma is different for everyone, and it heals differently for each person. What leaves one person struggling may not even affect another, and that’s perfectly natural. If you’re having a tough time managing the impact of trauma, EMDR may be your best therapy option. It’s an innovative practice that helps a person quickly process and heal traumatic wounds and restore their healthy, satisfying life. 

What Is EMDR & How Does it Alleviate the Effects of Trauma? 

When trauma negatively affects the mind, EMDR helps to repair it. Using bilateral eye movements, a therapist will safely walk you through a traumatic moment, allowing you to process the pain and adverse effects and help with your healing. This form of therapy often works more quickly than traditional talk therapy alone because the bilateral eye movements help to reprogram memory storage. Research indicates that this change in the way the brain stores traumatic memories alleviates the adverse effects of trauma. It may sound a little odd, but it's quite effective. 

What is a Typical EMDR Session Like? 

EMDR is a highly structured therapy technique. During the first session or first few, you’ll partner with a therapist to set a plan to process a specific set of traumatic memories and create a mental space that will calm you as you process the painful and traumatic experiences safely. During your ongoing therapy sessions, you’ll talk through traumatic memories with your therapist while performing side to side eye movements. At the end of the session, you’ll discuss how you feel about the memory. If you have achieved the desired level of desensitization related to the memory, you can move on to the next traumatic memory you want to address. If you haven’t achieved the desired level of desensitization, you’ll continue reviewing the current memory at future sessions until you achieve your goal.