EMDR Therapy | Cuyahoga Falls & Greater Akron, OH

Trauma Healing. Integration. Self-Regulation.

How does EMDR Work?

Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (the alarm signal for stressful events), the hippocampus (which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger), and the prefrontal cortex (which analyzes and controls behavior and emotion).

While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, they may not be processed without help. Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create feelings of overwhelm, of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.”

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy helps the client attend to past and present experiences in brief sequential doses while simultaneously focusing on an external stimulus (bilateral eye movements, sound, taps, or vibrations through a thera-tapper). Then the client is instructed to let new material become the focus of the next set of dual attention-focusing on more adaptive and/or positive beliefs about self while looking back at the past experience. This sequence of dual attention and personal association is repeated many times in the session.

EMDR works by alternating sensory stimulus (eye movement, touch, sound) to the brain while focusing on upsetting memories, feelings, or beliefs. The bi-lateral stimulation helps release the emotional and physical pain while increasing relaxation, inner peace and a greater sense of well-being. EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories, and allows normal healing to resume.  The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved. (Definition adapted from EMDRIA, 2019)

For more information visit the EMDR International Association HERE