What is EMDR?

Francine Shapiro, PhD, the founder of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy spontaneously discovered that left to right eye movements appeared to lessen the intensity of negative emotions related to her own distressing memories (https://www.emdr.com/history-of-emdr/).  Since then, EMDR has been extensively researched as an effective approach for treatment of PTSD, stress related disorders, anxiety, and panic disorders.  More recent research finds that EMDR can be helpful with OCD and related disorders as well.  

EMDR therapy process incorporates both processing the client’s negative emotions and restructuring of the client’s negative core beliefs into more adaptive ones.   The therapist helps the client identify the “targets” that will be processed during an EMDR session.  The therapist further helps the client identify the “negative belief,” meaning the core belief that the client may have that is associated with the “target.”  Common negative beliefs held by clients are “I am not good enough” or “I am unlovable.”  Next, the therapist will help the client articulate the “alternative belief,” e.g. “I am good enough.”  The processing of the negative emotion will take place at a pace that is comfortable for the client.  The therapist will ask the client to rate the intensity of the negative emotions associated with the target.  The objective of the session is to lessen the distress levels related to the target as much as possible and to “install” the appropriate alternative belief which will empower the client going forward. 

EMDR therapy can be effective both in person and online.  In person the therapist may facilitate eye movement or tactile bilateral stimulation with a device such as TheraTappers.   Remote therapy is successfully conducted with online based tools which involve the therapist operating the movement of an object such as a circle across the computer screen which the client follows with his or her eyes.