Overview
This therapeutic technique involves moving your eyes a certain way while you process traumatic memories.
EMDR can help you with a wide range of mental health conditions including:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PSTD)
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Personality disorders
Our Approach
We consider each client’s individual concerns and experiences and work to tailor treatments to your particular needs and therapeutic goals.
Learn More
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing directly affect the way your brain processes information. After experiencing a trauma, the brain can become disorganized or stuck. EMDR uses eye movement to reset the nervous system and create connections in the brain to reprocess traumatic events into less distressing memories.
Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. developed EMDR based on her theory about how your brain stores memories. Her theory is called the Adaptive Information Processing model. It states that your brain stores regular memories and traumatic memories differently.
Your brain stores and connects memories to other memories efficiently during regular life events. But when you have a disturbing or unsettling life event, your brain doesn’t store memories or connect them correctly. This lack of connection can mean your experiences and your memories are detached, or that the way a trauma memory is stored doesn’t allow for healing.
Additionally, new events can connect to past traumatic events which makes your mind more sensitive to things you may have experienced (smells, sounds, tastes, touch and sights) during a traumatic event.
Sensations (smells, sounds, tastes, touch, sights) that are similar to a traumatic experience can trigger your incorrectly stored memories. This can create serious feelings like anxiety, fear, panic or anger.
EMDR helps you to access memories from traumatic events in a particular way using eye movements and guided instructions. This process allows you to reprocess your traumatic memories and helps heal mental and emotional injuries.
EMDR can help you if you have:
- traumatic memories & PTSD
- anxiety
- depression
- grief
- chronic pain
- panic attacks
- guilt
- anger
- abuse
- phobias
- performance anxiety
- eating disorders & poor body image
- high stress
- self-esteem
Initial and follow-up appointments: About 80 minutes
Eight phases of EMDR therapy
| Phase | Your counsellor will: |
| Information gathering | Listen to your experiences, the history of your trauma and how it is affecting your life so they can decide if EMDR may help |
| Preparation | Tell you what to expect and discuss strategies to help manage your emotions during an EMDR session |
| Assessment | Help you determine specific memories or themes to focus on as well as negative beliefs about how you have felt and positive beliefs about how you would like to feel in the future |
| Desensitization and reprocessing | Engage your memory and help you pinpoint specific negative feelings, sensations, images and thoughts while drawing your attention to any new thoughts or ideas you experience |
| Installation | Help you focus on the positive belief you want to establish while you process a memory |
| Body scan | Guide you to focus on what you feel when you think about or experience the negative memory. This phase helps determine your progress—your symptoms should decrease as you have EMDR sessions until you have none or next to none. When this happens, your reprocessing is complete |
| Closure and stabilization | Talk to you about what to expect between EMDR sessions and share techniques for self-stabilizing if you have negative thoughts or feelings in between sessions |
| Re-evaluation and ongoing care | Review your progress, your current state, discuss your goals and determine whether more therapy is necessary. See the Body scan phase |
Our Practitioners
We take an empathetic approach to your care and always provide the most up-to-date information and resources. We want to help you on your journey to recovery.
Not sure where to start? Call 250-475-1522, ext 2. and our patient care coordinators will help.
