EMDR Therapy In Philadelphia, PA
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is widely regarded as one of the most effective and rapid therapeutic approaches for treating trauma. Developed in the late 1980s by Francine Shapiro, EMDR is based on the neuroscience of memory and the concept of processing traumatic memories by integrating them with adaptive information networks in the brain. This approach uses a structured process that helps trauma patients reprocess their traumatic experiences through bilateral stimulation—typically eye movements, but also taps or tones. This kinesthetic intervention is believed to facilitate the brain's natural healing process, allowing individuals to make meaningful connections between distressing memories and more adaptive thoughts, which can lead to a rapid reduction in disturbing emotions and an improvement in cognitive processing.
Research shows that many times talking about a trauma can be retraumatizing to a person (van der Kolk, 1996). EMDR is specifically designed to circumvent discussing traumatic memories by having the memory get processed in the brain, moving it from the right hemisphere where there is much reactivity and emotion and no separation of time, into the left hemisphere, where the emotional reaction is no longer and logic and reason are able to be accessed for integrating the experience. fMRI scans show that through these bilateral techniques, traumas become "metabolized" or processed in a way that is much quicker than just by using talk-therapy. EMDR is not recommended for all types of trauma, such as complex trauma, and a thorough evaluation needs to occur before beginning treatment.
A brief overview of the EMDR method can be found at:
http://www.emdrnetwork.org/description.html