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EMDR

What is EMDR? Many people have come up with different definitions to EMDR in the past and present, but the main definition of emdr still rem...

EMDR

 EMDR Therapy – What Does EMDR Stand For? 

EMDR stands for  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy.  It is a fairly new cognitive-behavioral treatment technique that combines cognitive processing and exposure methodology to treat conditioned emotional responding and other trauma-related symptoms.

An experiment showed that EMDR-with eye movements led to greater reduction in distress than EMDR-without eye movements.  Heart rate decreased significantly when eye movements began; skin conductance decreased during eye movement sets; heart rate variability and respiration rate increased significantly as eye movements continued, and orienting responses were more frequent in the eye movement than no-eye movement condition at the start of exposure.

Findings indicate that the eye movement component in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is beneficial, and is coupled with distinct psychophysiological changes that may aid in processing negative memories.


Sixty-two non-clinical participants with negative autobiographical memories received a single session of EMDR without eye movements or EMDR that included eye movements of either varied or fixed rate of speed. 

Subjective units of distress and vividness of the memory were recorded at pre-treatment, post-treatment, and 1-week follow-up.  Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing integrates well into a family systems approach.  The amount of time the complete treatment will take depends on upon the history of the client(s).


Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, controversial cognitive treatment technique used to treat conditioned emotional and trauma-related symptoms.  It is aimed to correct psychophysiological correlates and the effectiveness of different dual-attention tasks, used during eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.  This kind of treatment is rendered to people that have experienced some sort of negative memory trauma either as a kid or as an adult.

There are eight phases of treatment available starting from the history of the incident and treatment planning, preparation, assessment, reprocessing, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure and reevaluation to be sure the treatment worked.   

The goal of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy is to process completely the experiences that are causing problems and to include new ones that are needed for full health. “Processing” does not mean talking about it. “Processing” means setting up a learning state that will allow experiences that are causing problems to be “digested” and stored appropriately in your brain.

Who is an EMDR Therapist?

EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapist are the professional, specially trained for an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma.  

EMDR is a set of standardized protocols that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches.  The therapist uses all the protocols to treat patients.  

When was EMDR Created?

EMDR, otherwise known as Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing was created by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D.  She first discovered and developed the protocol behind EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) in 1987 to help people process traumatic memories.  More information can be found at the Institute.

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