Questions about EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based psychotherapy approach for reducing symptoms of mental health concerns. The model on which EMDR is based, Adaptive Information Processing (AIP), posits that much of psychopathology is due to the maladaptive encoding of and/or incomplete processing of traumatic or disturbing adverse life experiences. This impairs the client’s ability to integrate these experiences in an adaptive manner. EMDR facilitates the resumption of
normal information processing and integration. This treatment approach, which targets past experience, current triggers, and future potential challenges, results in the alleviation of presenting symptoms, a decrease or elimination of distress from the disturbing memory, improved view of the self, relief from bodily disturbance, and resolution of present and future anticipated triggers.

Disturbing life experiences can create symptoms that are often diagnosed as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and trigger a wide range of other mental, emotional, somatic, and behavioral disorders. These uncomfortable events negatively impact how we think, feel, and behave. EMDR assists in our brain’s ability to reprocess adverse life experiences, alleviate human suffering, and assist individuals in fulfilling their potential for resolution, not just relief, from mental health disorders.

The model on which EMDR is based, Adaptive Information Processing (AIP), posits that much of psychopathology is due to the brain’s maladaptive encoding of and/or incomplete processing of traumatic or disturbing adverse life experiences. This impairs the client’s ability to integrate these experiences in an adaptive manner. EMDR is comprised of a unique standardized set of procedures and clinical protocols for facilitating the brain’s ability to complete and adaptively process adverse events. While a client focuses on both the event and the clinician’s guidance through alternating sensory stimulation, memories of the uncomfortable event are processed, updated, and integrated, reducing mental health symptoms and the negative impact they cause on our lives.

As with all therapeutic approaches, we may feel uneasy before we feel at ease. When disturbing events are remembered, a client’s discomfort may be relieved by the therapist’s use of grounding, breathing, or relaxing techniques. These activities orient the client fully to the present and facilitate the client’s sense of stability. At the end of the session, the therapist informs the client that processing may continue after the session and fatigue may be experienced, provides instructions for maintaining stability, and asks the client to observe and log significant observations.

To achieve significant treatment effects, past events are reprocessed, present triggers desensitized, and future related challenges are explored. The timing of addressing these areas is determined by the client’s sense of stability, readiness, and situation. As a psychotherapy, EMDR unfolds according to the needs, resources, diagnosis, and development of the individual client. EMDR treatment is not completed in any particular number of sessions. In a broad sense, the client determines how many sessions are required.

EMDR sessions can be generally planned weekly with a customized treatment plan. At the end of a session, the therapist informs the client that processing may continue after the session and fatigue may be experienced. The therapist provides instructions for maintaining stability and asks the client to observe and log significant observations. Because much of the change process happens between sessions, allowing space for rest and integration of processed information, weekly sessions are preferred.

As with all therapeutic approaches, there is a potential risk of some emotional discomfort. EMDR therapy is a therapeutic intervention that must be administered by an EMDR trained clinician or those who are currently participating in an EMDRIA Approved training to support consistency in EMDR training, standards, credentialing, continuing education, and clinical application for treatment safety, effectiveness, and client stability.

Specific procedural steps are used to access and reprocess information which incorporates alternating bilateral visual, auditory, or tactile stimulation. These well-defined treatment procedures and protocols facilitate information reprocessing that optimizes sufficient client stabilization before, during, and after the reprocessing of distressing and traumatic memories and associated stimuli. The intent of the EMDR approach to psychotherapy is to facilitate the client’s innate ability to heal. Therefore, during memory reprocessing, therapist intervention is kept to the minimum necessary for the continuity of the client’s information reprocessing and the minimization of the client’s emotional discomfort.

Emdria: EMDR International Association
Website: https://www.emdria.org/

Let’s Talk EMDR Podcast
Major podcast platforms (i.e., Spotify)

The Journal of EMDR Practice and Research® (JEMDR)
Website: https://spj.science.org/journal/jemdr

Yes, for accepted insurance plans. For clients whose insurance plans are not accepted, I provide a superbill, detailing services provided, which might be reimbursable under your out-of-network benefits. It is up to your insurance provider to offer guidance on reimbursements.

EMDR is $250 per session, and a sliding fee scale is available for those who qualify.

Note: Sessions may be covered by accepted in-network plans or reimbursed by out-of-network benefits.

Please contact Dr. Dana Girard for a free consultation. Next, should you decide that EMDR is right for you, we’ll schedule your sessions.