Bright Start Counselling: Your Partner in Mental Health

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. The treatment helps reduce symptoms of acute and chronic PTSD, anxiety, depression and many other mental health concerns. It can be used with children, adolescents and adults. 

When an individual has a difficult or traumatic experience, damaging parts of the experience can get trapped in the nervous system. Things such as body sensations, pictures, sounds, thoughts and feelings from the originating experience become locked in the memory network, making it difficult to process new information. These sensations can become easily triggered, causing ongoing difficulty in day-to-day interactions and activities. Due to their often historic origin, many people find it difficult to explain why they are experiencing certain negative emotions and often feel stuck or unable to move away from them. EMDR therapy works by targeting the original experience and facilitating processing. Once processing has occurred, the brain naturally moves towards a place of adaptation and releasing of the trapped experience and triggers takes place. 

EMDR works through bilateral stimulations (usually eye movements). The client follows the therapist's fingers to stimulate the eye movements manually, which move back and forth for sets lasting approximately 15 to 30 seconds. During these sets, the client is asked to focus on what naturally comes forward to them about the incident being processed. 

No. During EMDR you are fully present, awake and aware of your surroundings. You have full control and can stop the session at any point. 

Yes! Due to the unique nature of bilateral stimulation, EMDR can successfully be used online/virtually. 

No. EMDR therapy can be started and stopped at any interval that you are comfortable with. It can be integrated with other forms of talk therapy.