Contributed by Pamela Mason
A soldier returning from serving in a war zone. Someone taken hostage. We all understand how these kinds of ‘out of the ordinary’ experiences may negatively affect someone.
Recent advances in neuro-imaging have furthered our understanding of basic brain-behaviour relationships, including shedding light on how we process and encode traumatic events.
However, research has demonstrated that a variety of common, everyday life experiences also can have a powerfully negative influence – an influence that is often pervasively subtle.
A leading clinician and researcher, Dr. Francine Shapiro puts it this way: “Many people feel that something is holding them back in life, causing them to think, feel and behave in ways that don’t serve them.”
Clients often describe feeling stuck, feeling like there has to be more, feeling like no matter what they do they end up back in the same place.
The goal of EMDR therapy is the re-processing of memories using the brain’s information processing system to make new, adaptive internal connections.
The really good news for clients is that treatment outcome studies identify that EMDR therapy is not only as, or more effective than traditional treatments, it has the distinct advantage of providing significant relief faster and with fewer overall treatment sessions.
