FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
ABOUT EMDR

What is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychological method for treating emotional difficulties that are caused by disturbing life experiences, ranging from traumatic events such as accidents, assaults, illness and natural disasters to upsetting childhood experiences that have had a lasting effect on one’s life. EMDR is a complex method that brings together elements from well-established theoretical orientations, including psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioral and client-centered approaches. For many clients, EMDR provides more rapid relief than conventional psychotherapies.

What is it used for?

While EMDR is best known for its treatment of post-traumatic stress reactions, it is also used to treat anxiety, depression, and other clinical presentations such as complicated grief reactions, phobias and self-esteem issues. EMDR is also used to help alleviate performance anxiety and to enhance the functioning of people at work, on the playing field, and in the performing arts.

What happens in EMDR?

During an EMDR session, the clinician works with the client to identify a specific problem or issue that will become the focus of the treatment session. Utilizing a structured protocol, the practitioner helps the client identify an experience that relates to the problem, focusing on aspects of the experience that continue to be disturbing to the client in the present. As the client focuses their attention to the targeted event, the clinician initiates the eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation such as alternating sounds or physical sensations. Once the client is engaged in the memory, he or she is likely to experience various aspects of the initial memory or other memories that are associated with the initial experience. The clinician pauses with the stimulation at regular intervals to insure that the client is processing adequately on their own. The practitioner acts as a facilitator, making clinical decisions about the direction of the client’s processing during EMDR in an effort to reach an “adaptive resolution” to the problem or issue that was initially identified.

Why do so many clients respond well to EMDR?

EMDR is a client-centered approach that allows the clinician to facilitate the mobilization of the client’s own inherent healing mechanism which appears to stimulate an innate information processing system in the brain. The EMDR model acknowledges the physiological component in emotional difficulties and directly targets the physical sensations, negative beliefs and emotional states that appear to be stored in the brain as it relates to the client’s present difficulties. These experiences are stored in the brain in their original state-specific form. EMDR activates the initial experience with all the sensory components that continue to be associated with that experience, thereby stimulating a desensitization and a reprocessing of the initial experience.

What is the mechanism that makes EMDR so effective?

While it is not clear how EMDR works, there are ongoing investigations of the possible mechanisms involved in EMDR that facilitate a reprocessing of human experience. What is clear to researchers is that present-day occurrences can reactivate negative thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations that arise from earlier experiences that are disturbing for a person. It appears that EMDR can change the association of those experiences, greatly decreasing the current distress about both past and present events.

The most popular hypothesis is currently being proposed by Harvard researcher Robert Stickgold, Ph.D. who proposes that EMDR turns on memory processing systems normally activated by REM sleep. The two systems involved in that process, the hippocampus and the neocortex, are being stimulated to “communicate” with each other, and that the bilateral stimulation activates that communication. Dr. Stickgold is currently conducting research to test his hypothesis.

How long does EMDR therapy take?

Once the client and clinician have agreed that EMDR is the treatment of choice, the therapy can take anywhere from 1-3 sessions for a single event trauma to a year or more for more complex problems. A “typical” course of EMDR treatment is generally 3-15 sessions, performed at regular intervals. EMDR therapy can be applied as an adjunctive treatment for a client who is already in psychotherapy, or it can be a therapy unto itself. Ideally, most clients and clinicians prefer EMDR treatment as part of a comprehensive psychotherapeutic approach.

How long does the relief from EMDR treatment last?

Follow-up studies on clients show that treatment effects are long-term. Reports from thousands of clients and clinicians from all over the world confirm that EMDR is an effective treatment for most individuals, and that the “adaptive resolution” of the problem or issue is successfully integrated into the person’s life.

What is the research that supports EMDR?

Since 1989, several controlled studies have been conducted, and results demonstrate that EMDR is one of the most efficacious treatments available for posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. Studies indicate that EMDR may also be effective in treating phobias, performance anxiety in the workplace, body dysmorphic disorder, trauma in children, and the reduction of chronic pain.

Are there any precautions?

Yes. It is important that clients are thoroughly screened for EMDR treatment, and that there are many variables that need to be taken into account when considering EMDR treatment. Some of the variables are about the nature of the problem, the emotional stability of the client, the client’s history, especially if there is trauma, the medical as well as clinical situation. It is also important that the clinician administering EMDR has been formally trained by an EMDRIA- approved program, and is certified as a practitioner of EMDR by EMDRIA.

How do you get more information on EMDR?

There are several valid sources of information about EMDR:
EMDR International Association is a non-profit, professional organization whose mission is to establish, maintain and promote the highest standards of excellence and integrity in EMDR practice, research and education. EMDRIA provides a multitude of services to professionals and consumers alike: it provides information to mental health providers and the public about EMDR; it has established guidelines on criteria for certification of EMDR practitioners, consultants, instructors and training programs; it supports further research on EMDR’s efficacy, recent innovations of EMDR treatment, and applications of EMDR with different client populations and clinical syndromes; maintains a register of certified clinicians and consultants; has an active Public Relations Committee that is up to date on recent developments in the field and informs health care professionals, HMOs, insurance companies and the public about applications and limitations of EMDR. Further information can be obtained through EMDRIA by calling 512-451-5200 or by contacting the website at www.emdria.org.

EMDR Institute, Inc., is a private, for profit organization that trains clinicians in EMDR worldwide. To date, the Institute has trained over 40,000 clinicians. It is owned and operated by the developer of EMDR, Francine Shapiro, Ph.D.. For more information about EMDR trainings, clinicians trained by the Institute, as well as research on EMDR, you can call 831-761-1040, or access their website at www.emdr.com.

For information on trauma as well as more information on EMDR you can go to David Baldwin’s trauma pages at www.trauma-pages.com.