What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy approach designed for working with distressing or traumatic memories. The theory behind EMDR is that many psychological difficulties are the result of distressing life experiences which have not been stored in memory properly and are said to be unprocessed or blocked. These traumatic memories may need some help to become processed, and EMDR is one way to do this.
What is my trauma?
What is special about my trauma memories? Normal memories are stored by a part of the brain called the hippocampus. You can think of the hippocampus as a sort of librarian that catalogues (processes) events and stores them in the right place. However, some traumatic events (such as accidents, abuse, disasters, or violence) are so overwhelming that the hippocampus doesn’t do its job properly. When this happens memories are stored in their raw, unprocessed, form. These trauma memories are easily triggered, leading them to replay and cause distress over and again.
My Next EMDR Session Prep Sheet
This structured journal is designed to have you reflect and will be incorporated directly into your next session.
The final page is optional and can be finished in session. Enjoy!
Before & After EMDR Brain Images
The image on the left shows the brain before EMDR: The areas in red show unhealthy hyperactivity in the parts of the brain associated with anxiety, depression, and concentration. In other words, you feel triggered, anxious, out-of-control.
Now, look at the image on the right: After a few sessions of EMDR, the red areas are almost totally gone By re-programming the emotional associations linked with your traumatic memories, EMDR has helped to temper the fear, anger, grief, and other emotions - eliminating the pain permanently.
