Joy Rising Counselling Services

EMDR Therapy: When you have scars on the inside.

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR stands for "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing" which is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for with trauma. I have experienced EMDR both from the perspective of the therapist and from the perspective of the client and I have found it to be the most effective way of making deep and lasting life changes. It is appropriate for "Big T" trauma and "Small t" trauma. EMDR is appropriate for use with both adults and children.

Big "T" Trauma: Situations where there is "risk of blood on the floor". Examples: natural disasters (fires, floods), car accidents, assaults, rape.
Small "t" Trauma: Situations where there is no blood on the floor" but you feel like your self esteem "just got stomped on". Examples: emotional abuse, bullying, sudden job/relationship loss.

What kinds of presenting problems can EMDR be used with?

EMDR can be used with an wide variety of issues - limitations arise more from the therapist's training and experience than the EMDR itself. Personally, I have successfully used EMDR to treat/help clients who struggled with the effects of:

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).
Physical Abuse/Sexual Abuse/Emotional Abuse.
Anxiety (Social Anxiety, Panic Attacks, Agoraphobia, Specific Phobias).
Car accidents.
Grief/Loss.
Mild-Moderate Depression.
Stress related physical symptoms (i.e. physical symptoms that get worse when the person is stressed).
Disordered Eating (Emotional Eating, Binge Eating, and Anorexic/ Restricting Type).