We are excited to announce that we are now offering EMDR!
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, better known as EMDR, is a form of psychotherapy that promotes healing from difficult experiences in childhood, adolescence or adult life and helps alleviate the symptoms and emotional distress that some individuals face. One benefit of EMDR is the time frame in which people see results from this modality. Depending on the person and trauma they have faced in their lives, it may only take as little as three 90-minute sessions for people to see/feel a change related to their EMDR experience.
EMDR philosophy is similar to the idea of healing a physical wound like a cut on your hand. When healing a physical wound, your body fights to close the wound. When continually touched or rubbed by other foreign objects, it can slow the healing process. Once these objects are no longer aggravating the wound, it has the ability to heal again. EMDR works by following this method of events, only it focuses on the internal mental processes. The brain’s information processing system can be disturbed by blocks or imbalances caused by the impact of a negative life experience, which results in emotional wounds and suffering. EMDR-trained clinicians are able to activate natural healing processes in the brain, based on training methods and protocol.
EMDR has been the focus of many studies which support the evidence that it can positively impact an individual’s life. 30 controlled studies have been conducted, and results show varying positive outcomes using this form of psychotherapy. According to the EMDR institute, 100% of single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple trauma victims no longer were diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions!
Our EMDR trained and certified therapist, Douglas Yam, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), was so impressed with his personal experience with this modality, he decided to offer it to his clients. According to Douglas, “EMDR has helped me immensely as a client in therapy and as a professional working with clients. It is a wonderful and typically very effective complement to talk-therapy that I have found almost anybody can benefit from. It can help get to those hard to reach places that we all possess sooner and gently – many clients are surprised and delighted with their progress.”
The focus of EMDR is on three time periods in a person’s journey: past, present, and future. The past is focused on past events and memories, while the present is focused on what caused distress currently (and the skills and attitudes needed for positive change). Incorporating these three time periods, EMDR follows an eight phase treatment approach:
Phase 1: The therapist learns the history of an individual and specific memories of events where EMDR will benefit the healing journey
Phase 2: The therapist ensures the client has different ways of addressing emotional distress using imagery and stress reduction techniques which are taught by the therapist.
Phase 3-6: The therapist helps the client to identify vivid visual memory of the negative experience, a negative belief about themselves, and the related emotions and body sensations.
Phase 7: This is the closure phase and the client is asked to keep a log for the following week for any material which math arises. This phase also focuses on practicing everything learned in phase two.
Phase 8: The next session begins at phase eight, where the client and therapist examine the progress made thus far.
To learn more information about how EMDR therapy might benefit your needs, call or email us to book a phone consultation or appointment with Douglas!
Reference:
https://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/