Eye Movement Desensitization And Reprocessing
Today, EMDR sees itself as a dynamic-behavioral procedure that has both psychodynamic and behavioral therapeutic elements.
WHAT IS EMDR? EMDR Therapist in London
The abbreviation EMDR stands for "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing" and is a method in trauma therapy developed between 1987 and 1991 by clinical psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro in California. EMDR has been used successfully in trauma therapy since the mid-1990s. EMDR works with bilateral stimulation, ie stimulation of both hemispheres of the brain, primarily via eye movements, increasingly also involving other sensory organs. We are the best emdr therapist in London providing emdr therapy at city psychological Services.
This method can be easily combined with all common therapy concepts (such as talk therapy, behavioral therapy, NLP, psychotherapy based on depth psychology). EMDR is also being used more and more in the areas of training, counseling and coaching.
After just a few sessions, EMDR leads to noticeable changes in terms of cognitions, emotions and body experiences. There are now a number of studies and field reports that prove the positive effect of EMDR in processing stressful individual experiences. The process of dealing with complex or multiple traumatizations naturally takes much longer, but is significantly shorter than with the usual psychotherapy methods.
Scientific studies have repeatedly confirmed the high effectiveness and lasting effect of this therapy method. Since 2006, the effectiveness of EMDR for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been recognized worldwide. Originally developed and tested for processing traumatic experiences of war veterans, the possible applications are now diverse.
HOW DOES EMDR WORK?
With EMDR, these "frozen" memories are reworked with the goal of noticeable and visible relief on the body, feeling and sensation level. In an 8-stage EMDR process that is actively and intensively accompanied by therapy, which can extend over several sessions, the stressful event mentioned by the client is recorded and processed in individual steps. At city psychological services our emdr therpist in London work with the individual to solve their problems.
The client is asked to adopt an observer role. With part of his attention he follows the external perceptual stimulus, namely the bilateral stimulation, with another part of his attention he concentrates on his inner experience while focusing on the burdensome ideas. The observer's perspective creates emotional distance between the client and the experience and enables a cognitive and emotional reassessment.
In addition to controlled eye movements, acoustic and tactile stimulation is also used to enhance the effect by involving several senses.
EMDR is now considered a resource-oriented method that causes neuronal changes and thus sets development and self-healing processes in motion. EMDR not only enables accelerated processing of stressful memory fragments, but also cognitive restructuring, ie a reassessment of the experience and a changed attitude towards oneself and one's own resources.
INDICATION OF EMDR
The areas of application of EMDR today are wide-ranging. When we consider that this method was originally conceived in the 1980s to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD, by war veterans, it is pleasantly surprising to see how many other areas EMDR can help in just as significantly. This is especially true when stressful life events play a significant role in the development of the disorder.
The most important areas of application of EMDR are mentioned here:
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• strong grief after loss experiences
• Effects of stressful life experiences, eg accident, death of a relative, separation, job loss, retirement, bullying
• traumatic experiences and associated trauma disorders
• physical, sexual or emotional trauma
• Anxiety and Panic Disorders
• Phobias, eg fear of exams, fear of flying, fear of heights, animal phobias, claustrophobia
• sleep disorders
• depressions
• substance-related dependence (especially in connection with a post-traumatic disorder)
• chronic pain conditions
• allergies
• psychosomatic complaints
• coping with stress
• burnout prevention
• self esteem issues
• performance blocks
• unwanted behavior patterns
• self management
For more information, to make an appointment or if you have any questions, we would be happy to help you personally.
DEVELOPMENT OF EMDR
The American clinical psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro "accidentally" found while walking in the park in 1987 that her troublesome thoughts disappeared and their negative effects lessened when she moved her eyes between the trees.
She then tested the effect of intentional eye movements while concentrating on stressful thoughts in a self-experiment. Here, too, positive changes were evident, so that she extended her experiments with induced eye movements to friends and acquaintances. They should focus on negative thoughts and their associated affects while following the movements of Shapiro's fingers with their eyes.
Encouraged by the successes, Francine Shapiro developed a standard procedure, which she called EMD (Eye Movement Desensitization), since she initially assumed that her procedure was a variant of the systematic desensitization known from behavioral therapy. In late 1987, she tested the effectiveness of EMD in an empirical study on patients diagnosed with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). The results of their study, published in the Journal of Traumatic Stress in 1989, show a significant decrease in stress compared to the control group.
In the further development and research of the method, Shapiro observed clear differences to the behavioral therapy methods. Between 1987 and 1991 in California, she further developed EMD into the EMDR method. In 1989 she used EMDR for the first time in therapeutic work with war traumatized people.
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