Have you been hearing about EMDR lately? EMDR is the acronym for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, which is a mouthful. EMDR has grown in popularity over the last decade because it is such a powerful therapeutic tool. People are getting well. People who have suffered from PTSD and mental health and substance use disorders that are linked to past trauma are realizing that treatment that accesses the brain’s innate healing abilities is highly effective. Curious to learn more?
EMDR therapy in Denver, Colorado, is provided by the professional mental health and addiction treatment staff at Mile High Recovery Center. At Mile High, we understand the many benefits of EMDR treatment and its effectiveness in helping our clients find sobriety, mental health, and overall well-being. Call 303-268-2144 today, or use our online form to learn about EMDR benefits.
What Is EMDR?
Even if you’ve heard the term eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and its acronym, EMDR, you may not fully understand what it is or how it works. Eye movement refers to the physical movements you will do to affect healing results. Desensitization is about desensitizing your brain to the memory of past trauma. Reprocessing means your brain is taught to process the traumatic memory differently to bring about healing.
In EMDR, you and your therapist identify areas of focus, and then you use eye movement to stimulate both sides of your brain. This bilateral stimulation helps reorganize where traumatic memories are stored in your brain. This new storage system helps limit the memories’ ability to trigger – or retrigger – the trauma, along with the panic, anxiety, and other challenges accompanying those feelings.
Trauma is often stored as something current or ongoing, a brain strategy for self-protection that hearkens back to our ancient history of living in the wild. So, despite trauma being in the past, it can feel like it is happening now, creating a constant sense of living within the traumatic experience or experiences. EMDR benefits you by effectively forging new connections that mitigate traumatic emotions and PTSD.
EMDR resolves unaddressed trauma in just a handful of sessions. Different experiences of trauma are most often addressed consecutively.
Benefits of EMDR
This remarkable treatment for trauma, including trauma that underlies other mental health disorders, including addiction, has many benefits. Five benefits of EMDR are listed here:
- An end to circular thinking. As you may recognize, spiraling thoughts can become so fixed that stepping away from that endless circle feels impossible. The spiral leads to anxiety, panic, phobias, and other crippling mental health symptoms. The process of EMDR helps you leave the trap of circular thinking behind. You feel lighter and able to move forward without the kind of anxiety that can paralyze you.
- Forging a positive self-image. Your belief systems have been created and reinforced by the negative, painful, and traumatic experiences from which you seek healing when you begin EMDR treatment. These beliefs can limit your ability to trust, feel hope, and, most damaging of all, love yourself. EMDR helps you shift your belief systems into something less harmful to your well-being. You are likely to find that your beliefs about yourself and the world around you are changed after EMDR and that you can better resolve conflict, day-to-day hurdles, frightening situations, and more.
- Improved relationships. Related to improved self-image is the growth of self-confidence. When trauma dominates your daily functioning, it is easier to keep others at arm’s length in order to feel safer and protect yourself emotionally. As you develop self-assurance through EMDR therapy, you can better create healthy boundaries, which in turn will help you relate to others more openly.
- Less talk, more doing. For many people who are dealing with trauma and its effects, talk therapy feels overwhelming. Starting the therapeutic journey with EMDR, which does not demand much talk, is a safe, manageable path for many people. Once you have been guided through the EMDR process and can feel the shift in your experience of your traumatic memories, you will be better able to address these memories, which have lost most if not all of their power over you, through talk therapy, if desired.
- Rapid results. Short-term treatment is a clear benefit of EMDR, which typically lasts from eight to 12 weeks. Despite the fast results, EMDR’s results are permanent. There is often no further therapy required. For those with limited time or finances, are recovering from addiction, or seeking relief from escalating mental health challenges, the relatively swift results are beyond reassuring.
EMDR Treatment at Mile High Recovery Center
What is EMDR? It may well be the best therapeutic option for you on your journey to mental health and recovery. Wherever you are on your journey to wellness, let Mile High Recovery Center help.
Learn more about EMDR benefits, how it works, and why it might be an excellent treatment option for you. Call Mile High at 303-268-2144 or use our easy online form.
