Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR therapy is a structured psychotherapy that primarily focuses on treating individuals who have experienced distressing, traumatic events. The idea behind EMDR is those traumatic memories, when unprocessed, can become “stuck” in the brain, leading to a wide array of emotional and psychological difficulties.
Patients who have experienced trauma often find themselves going back to thoughts of past events and experiencing disturbances. These unresolved memories can manifest in the form of anxiety, depression, PTSD, and other trauma-related conditions.
Unlike other treatments that focus on directly altering the emotions, thoughts, and responses resulting from traumatic experiences, EMDR therapy focuses directly on the memory and is intended to change the way the memory is stored in the brain, thus reducing and eliminating the problematic symptoms.
Imaginary Exposure (IE)
Exposure is a treatment that focuses on confronting your fears. In Imaginary Exposure, we refer to exposure to an anxious or traumatic memory. This occurs in your mind, or ‘imaginary’. The goal is to reduce anxiety or tension and revise any incorrect or unhelpful beliefs about the event. The idea behind this is that an event may not have been properly processed because there were possibly such intense emotions that it was repressed or suppressed. With Imaginary Exposure, you will initiate this processing anew.
During treatment, the aim is to vividly recall a memory from start to finish and go through it multiple times. You describe the event aloud as if you are watching a movie. Your therapist will assist you in doing this in as detailed a manner as possible.