EMDR

EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound, however if a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it is likely to continue to cause pain and not properly heal.

EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s adaptive information processing (AIP) system naturally moves toward mental health and at night during REM sleep the brain will try to make sense of confusing or disturbing emotional events, however if the emotional stressors have been intense and overwhelming the memories of these events can become stuck in the nervous system and continue to cause intense suffering in the here-and-now. EMDR, in the safety of the therapy room with a skilled psychotherapist, can help these traumatic memories be reprocessed so healing can resume, just as a wound can heal once it is properly cleaned and cared for.