Just about anyone can benefit from EMDR therapy.
EMDR is an effective and cutting-edge treatment to resolve trauma. If you have tried other therapy with few results, EMDR will be a good option for you.
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has been highly researched and shown to be an effective method to help people recover from trauma and other stressful life experiences, including PTSD, anxiety, depression and panic disorders.
What’s more, it’s known for creating significant changes in how you think, feel and behave.
But the truth is you don’t have to have a diagnosable mental health issue to benefit from EMDR, because it is helpful in addressing a wide variety of issues that create personal and professional problems; perfectionism, performance anxiety, troubling patterns in your relationships and self-sabotaging behaviors.
Will EMDR work for me?
You may be a good candidate for EMDR therapy if you have:
- Painful memories that you can’t seem to move past
- Stubborn negative beliefs about yourself that stem from past trauma
- Are a survivor of past abuse (physical, emotional, or sexual abuse)
- Have an alcoholic parent
- Lost a loved one
- Witnessed a traumatic event
- Feel like you have to explain yourself to others
- Lived through a traumatic event like a shooting, stalking, or car accident
- Have trauma from a medical event or medical procedure
Who can benefit from EMDR?
The good news is that just about anyone can benefit from EMDR, whether you’re actively in crisis, struggling and unable to keep up, stuck in survival mode, or thriving and focused on personal growth.
EMDR has also shown to be successful in treating a number of mental health issues:
- Stress, Anxiety, Panic Attacks and Performance Anxiety
- Trauma, PTSD
- Depression
- Substance Abuse, Addiction and Compulsions
- Violence and Abuse
- Attachment Issues
- Grief and Loss
- Eating Disorders
- Sleep Disturbances
- Personality Disorders
- Chronic Illness and Medical issues
- Phobias
- People Pleasing
What are the benefits of EMDR?
Although outcomes in therapy depend on a number of factors there are MANY proven benefits of EMDR therapy, including:
- More restful sleep
- Reduction of nightmares
- Improved diet
- Increased self-confidence
- Improved self care
- Freedom from past experiences that keep you stuck
- Reduction or elimination of flashbacks
- Feeling more connected to & in control of the present
- Reduction or elimination of triggers
- Positive changes in how you think, feel and behave.
- Alleviates troubling symptoms, such as panic attacks
- No longer feeling that you have to explain yourself to others
- Silences your inner critic by transforming negative beliefs into positive ones
The American Psychiatric Association, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense, The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews , and the World Health Organization among many other national and international organizations recognize EMDR therapy as an effective treatment for PTSD.
7/16/2024 – Client Testimonial:
EMDR works!! I had pretty bad PTSD. My PTSD comes from my daughter who was 16 when she passed away. She had bone cancer she fought for 2 years.
Would u believe EMDR has pretty much cured it. If it hadn’t happened to me I would tell someone their full of shit there’s no way I could have the life I have now. Because I believed this was going to be my life for the rest of my life. I feel alive again, I notice the beauty of things around me. Things that used to trigger me, no longer do. It’s hard to explain how EMDR works.
It was hard to have family moments watching her cousins get married and having kids. it was hard to be around them and me seeing everything I missed with my daughter. It was so bad that one of the days I tried to be around them I would be so in my head playing that record of the trauma whichever one my brain decided to play. That a 10 minute drive took me 40 minutes to get home because of the nightmare in my head, it wouldn’t shut up enough to get me home. I would have to keep turning around feeling lost in a town I knew. I set my GPS and still keep saying don’t turn around again.
Watching ur child in pain mentally and physically and that’s all u can do is watch u can’t fix it. When that’s what every parent wants is to make ur child feel better So if just the word cancer came up I would spiral down the rabbit hole. I couldn’t watch commercials because of so many things said about cancer. I can now be around when commercials like St. Jude talking about kids having cancer. I can hear it and not want to yell “TURN THE CHANNEL” !!! That’s just one example.
If u who have PTSD know how u can sit there in that same place watching it all again and again and being there again and again To smell the candles to hear the songs that were playing. To everything I said to her It’s like ur there reliving that day over and over again. Feeling the exact same way, like I was sitting there in the same chair and holding her hand hearing everything hearing all the loved ones talking to her and what they were saying and keep watching her take her last breath knowing ur not there again but can’t help feeling like u truly are! EMDR works I don’t have those moments I have memories of the day but I do not spiral down the rabbit hole anymore!
The ones closest to you will notice the changes from doing EMDR!
My other daughter told me last Thanksgiving I got my Mom back she wanted to dance with me and have me fix her hair she’s an adult and when she saw the change she reverted to some of the things we did before her sister got cancer. After years of PTSD, I now spend more time with my beautiful daughter and I’m present when we’re together those who have PTSD know what I’m talking about u can be sitting there but you are a shell of the person you were before PTSD. Waiting for the moment u won’t be exhausted from trying to pretend everything is ok.
My sister noticed the change too. A friend who used to help me get thru my very worst moments notices it too. I would love to see others do it to help them too. There is no reason to live our life’s like this. U will spend more time being around your family and being present. It took me some time to get here it took about 8 months going every week because it was working so well I didn’t want to stop. I never thought I could have my life back the life I had before she passed away. I still feel guilty from not being there for years for my other daughter because I was present but because of the war going on inside my head I wasn’t completely there. There are memories that I forgot that I now remember memories of the good times that had happened because of my mind not allowing me to have space for those memories to not have days play over and over again of certain days like the moment she passed away. so in memory of my daughter who wanted to help other kids with cancer get thru what she was going thru.
So in memory of her I want to do what she wanted and help people going through what I was going thru to make it better and if I just helped one person it’s worth me sharing my story. Please share the more aware of EMDR people are, the more we can help others get their life’s back too. Thanks!