What is EMDR ?.

How does it work ?

Most of the time your body routinely manages new information and experiences without you being aware of it. However when some event happens to overwhelm you your natural coping mechanism can become overloaded. This can result in traumatic experiences becoming frozen in your brain and remaining unprocessed. These traumatic memories are stored in a part of your brain associated with emotions. When these memories are triggered they can cause emotional disturbance or overload.

EMDR utilises the natural healing ability of your body. It is not hypnosis. It uses eye movements similar to those in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. There is a comprehensive assessment process first, asking specific questions about a disturbing memory and then eye movements will be recreated by using a bar of moving light . The eye movements will last for a short while then stop. You will then be asked about thoughts and experiences during each set of eye movements.

With repeated sets of eye movements the memory tends to change in such a way that it loses its painful intensity.