What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful, comprehensive psychotherapy approach that is empirically supported. EMDR offers a reprocessing of disturbing life experiences, resulting in a significant reduction or elimination of symptoms such as emotional distress, intrusive and obsessive thoughts, and flashbacks and nightmares. It involves eye movements and other forms of bilateral stimulation that are used to access the brain’s system of information processing. EMDR was originally developed by Francine Shapiro, a Senior Research Fellow at the Mental Research Institute in Palo Alto, California in 1987.
EMDR also is used to treat relationship problems and self-esteem issues, as well as anxiety and panic, depression, grief, and phobias. It also can improve professional, artistic, and creative performance by sharpening focus, gaining increased awareness of managerial style, and by alleviating performance anxiety in the areas of public speaking, sports, and in the creative arts.