Rabjohn Behavioral Institute, PLLC
1839 Cannon Dr, Ste 101
Mansfield, TX 76063
817.539.2282
EYE MOVEMENT AND DESENSITIZATION REPROCESSING
EMDR
EMDR is a very exciting and advanced psychotherapy for people suffering from PTSD, panic disorder, low self-esteem and a variety of other issues resulting from past trauma.
It is obvious that early adverse life events may be the basis for a variety of negative and damaging psychological symptoms. EMDR is an empirically validated therapy that targets unprocessed memories connected to these adverse experiences. These negative life events can be war, sexual abuse, physical abuse or other traumatic experiences. While your body survives these events, your mind may not heal as you would like leaving you with nightmares, flashbacks, high anxiety, and a very negative self-outlook. By using EMDR therapy to process these traumatic memories, there can be rapid symptom relief: less flashbacks, less panic attacks and less obsessive thoughts.
One of our Licensed Professional Counselors, Ms Melissa Gramigna, is an EMDR trained therapist who will be happy to discuss this exciting therapy with you.
At the current time, we also refer our clients needing EMDR to either Dr. Kathy Bailey, Ms. Susan Reed, Ms. Tiffany Mylett, or Ms. Annette Kerr. Please discuss this treatment with Dr. Rabjohn, Dr. Redd, or Ms. Vasquez if you have questions or need a referral.
How Does It Work?
EMDR reprocessing uses a series of repetitive eye movements - guided by the trained therapist - similar to the rapid eye movement that occurs during REM sleep. By using these eye movements, we think processing of past trauma begins via 'dual attention', or focusing on the eye movements while focusing on the memory, which may encourage the brain to access both the left and right hemisphere. This is NOT hypnosis, because unlike hypnosis you are the one in control and it will be your own brain doing the healing. The eye movements lead the brain to free associate to related memories, which links the past and present; allowing the emotionally charged memory to be processed to a more adaptive form.
But like many ideas in medicine, we aren’t completely sure why or how this EMDR therapy works, but with over 30 extensive clinical trials, we know it is very effective when performed by a trained and experienced therapist.