EMDR Therapy

Eye Movement Reprocessing and Desensitization is a specific trauma therapy modality offered at Insight Services.

EMDR is a therapy proven to help reduce symptoms related to trauma and PTSD, depression, anxiety, addictions and other emotional problems. 25 years of quality research has proven that this therapy helps people resolve issues of many kinds more quickly than other therapies, and that the healing “sticks” even 15 months later.

EMDR has a direct effect on the way the brain processes information, releasing emotional experiences that are trapped in the nervous system.

A trained therapist works with the individual to recall a disturbing thought, feeling or memory.  Then, before we begin to process the traumatic memories, clients are taught how to use bilateral stimulation (BLS); AKA something you can see, hear or touch that occurs in a moving side-by-side pattern; for example, moving your eyes back and forth, like watching a ping pong game.

BLS helps the brain to “digest” distressing memories and allow them to be stored in a calmed form, properly relegated to the past. The disturbing memories are reprocessed by the brain, resulting in painful feelings being exchanged for more resolved, peaceful feelings, like a re-written story.

Once the memory of a distressing experience has been desensitized, EMDR therapy helps the clients’ stories end with a positive conclusion about themselves. You can think of this process as reorganizing the library of memories within the brain.

EMDR is highly recommended as an effective form of therapy for trauma by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), The World Health Organization (WHO), The Department of Veteran Affairs, The Department of Defense, The American Psychiatric Association, and numerous other international organizations.

Research shows a success rate for EMDR in the treatment of PTSD of 80-90% in up to half the time of traditional talk therapy.