EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a highly effective treatment for people who have experienced recent or past traumatic events. The Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model is the foundation of treatment. The AIP model indicates that those who have experienced traumas continue to experience the impact of those disturbing events in the present day. The memories are “stuck” in the same way the person originally experienced the event. When triggered the individual can experience the same physical sensations, distorted cognitive beliefs and emotional disturbance as if they were experiencing the trauma again. These experiences can become a huge block for someone to learn how to move through the trauma and develop new ways of thinking about themselves and the world.
EMDR is much like other treatment approaches that rely on history taking and exploring coping mechanisms as well as developing new ones. The client’s level of tolerance for distress is evaluated carefully before implanting EMDR to ensure their safety. EMDR is not the same experience for each client and the process has no definitive timeline. It is also often used as an adjunct to other approaches and can treat anxiety, depression as well as addiction and eating disorder
