“The goal of EMDR Treatment is to rapidly metabolize the dysfunctional residue from the past and transform it into something useful.”
Francine Shapiro
Founder of EMDR Therapy
What is EMDR therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an extensively researched, proven therapy designed to help people recover from trauma and PTSD.
How does EMDR work?
EMDR uses guided "bilateral stimulation"—such as side-to-side eye movements—to help the brain safely reprocess traumatic memories, reducing their emotional intensity and vividness.
What does EMDR treat?
Beyond trauma, research shows EMDR is highly effective for anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, and addiction.
Trusted Worldwide
EMDR is recognized as an effective treatment by top global health organizations, including the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Psychological Association (APA), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Proven Results
To date, EMDR therapists have successfully helped millions of people across 130 countries.
References
Maxfield, L. (2019). A clinician’s guide to the efficacy of EMDR therapy. Journal of EMDR Practice and Research [Editorial], 13(4), 239-246.
Shapiro, F., & Forrest, M. S. (2016). EMDR: The breakthrough therapy for overcoming anxiety, stress, and trauma. Hachette UK
Van der Kolk, B.A., Spinazzola, J., Blaustein, M.E., Hopper, J.W., Hopper, E.K., Korn, D. L., & Simpson, W.B. (2007). A randomized clinical trial of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), fluoxetine, and pill placebo in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: treatment effects and long-term maintenance. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 68(1), 37-46.
EMDR Therapy is a Recognized Effective Treatment for PTSD
Anyone can experience intense trauma. EMDR therapy is widely considered one of the best treatments for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and it has been endorsed as an effective therapy by many organizations.
How is EMDR Therapy different from other therapies?
EMDR therapy is designed to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain. Unlike other therapies, it does not require talking in detail about a distressing issue or completing homework between sessions. Rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors resulting from the distressing issue, the focus in on allowing the brain to resume its natural healing process. For many clients, EMDR therapy can be completed in fewer sessions than other psychotherapies.
How does EMDR therapy affect the brain?
While our brains process and resolve many stressful events normally through the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex, trauma can sometimes cause this process to become stalled. The distress remains trapped by our survival instincts - our fight, flight, or freeze response, often resulting in feeling overwhelming distress or as if you are stuck “frozen in time” rather than healing. EMDR therapy helps jumpstart the brain's natural processing, allowing these memories to be effectively digested so that you can remember the experience without triggering the original distress or survival response.
Who can benefit from EMDR therapy?
EMDR therapy helps children and adults of all ages. Therapists use EMDR therapy to address a wide range of challenges:
- Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
- Chronic Illness and medical issues
- Depression and bipolar disorders
- Dissociative disorders
- Eating disorders
- Grief and loss
- Pain
- Performance anxiety
- Personality disorders
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other trauma and stress-related issues
- Sexual assault
- Sleep disturbance
- Substance abuse and addiction
- Violence and abuse
Can EMDR therapy be done without a trained EMDR therapist?
EMDR therapy is a mental health intervention. As such, it should only be offered by properly trained and licensed mental health clinicians. EMDRIA™ does not condone or support indiscriminate uses of EMDR therapy such as "do-it-yourself" virtual therapy.
How did EMDR therapy start?
In the late 1980s, Francine Shapiro, Ph.D., discovered a connection between eye movement and persistent upsetting memories. With this personal insight, she began a lifelong study and development of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.
Over the years, and in the face of initial skepticism, Dr. Shapiro’s work developed from a hypothesis to a formal therapy process. EMDR therapy has been demonstrated to be effective for treating trauma in randomized clinical trials, case studies, and millions of clinical hours treating trauma and trauma-related disorders across the globe. The American Psychiatric Association, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (USVA) and Department of Defense (USDOD), the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health Care and Excellence (NICE), and the World Health Organization (WHO), multiple global organizations now recognize the effectiveness of EMDR therapy that Dr. Shapiro developed.
Most recently, the public acceptance of EMDR therapy was illustrated when singer and actress Miley Cyrus opened up about using EMDR therapy, saying that it saved her life. The public acceptance of EMDR therapy was illustrated when Prince Harry reported that he engaged in EMDR therapy to treat trauma from his childhood. Sandra Bullock also opened up about using EMDR therapy to treat trauma from an at-home break-in. Other celebrities who have used EMDR to treat their trauma are actress Jameela Jamil, Evan Rachel Wood, and singer/actress Lady Gaga.
Dr. Shapiro encouraged the foundation of EMDRIA™, which comprises more than 15,000 mental health professionals who use EMDR therapy in their clinical practice to treat many conditions that impact mental health. Dr. Shapiro died in 2019, but her legacy of trauma-informed mental health care lives on in the EMDR therapists, researchers, and patients for whom EMDR therapy heals.
What can I expect from EMDR?
- After the therapist and client agree that EMDR therapy is a good fit, the client will work through the eight phases of EMDR therapy with their therapist.
- Attention will be given to a negative image, belief, emotion, and body sensation related to this event, and then to a positive belief that would indicate the issue was resolved.
- A typical EMDR therapy session lasts from 60-90 minutes. EMDR therapy may be used within a standard talking therapy, as an adjunctive therapy with a separate therapist, or as a treatment all by itself.
