How does EMDR Psychotherapy work? //

Traumatic events that continue to disrupt a person‘s life and well being, are events not yet processed or stored in an efficient manner in the memory system. These events continue to ”hijack” the person‘s emotional life, through repetition of unpleasant pictures, sounds, bodily reactions and feelings of anxiety such as flashbacks.

The normal way to process information stops when we are exposed to severe traumatic experiences. If we are disturbed or violated by these traumatic events, our autonomic nervous system is alerted and more primitive responses in the brain takes over e.g. the fight or flight response.

The traumatic experience is thus stored in a non linguistic form with primary intense physical and emotional reactions.

EMDR psychotherapy makes it possible to process the traumatic experiences, in a safe and systematic manner. This ensures that old traumatic memories can be stored, but this time in a conscious, revised and accepted form.

EMDR treatment

EMDR psychotherapy is a combination of conversation about the problem with the use of standardized (defined) protocols.

EMDR treatment makes use of a bilateral (two-sided) stimulation of the brain, either by the client rhythmically moving the eyes from right to left, or alternatively to a sound heard in the right and left ear. Alternating light touches, to the top of the hand, can also be used to achieve the bilateral stimulation. This stimulation is carried out after the client’s traumatic memories are identified, and a special protocol must be followed, so it becomes possible to integrate both the cognitive (thinking), the affective (emotional) and bodily sensations in the best possible way. The client’s own neural (nerve) network is activated, then a reprocessing of the trauma in all its aspects is established. After a period of time the memory of the trauma is no longer perceived as uncomfortable, but instead becomes a memory that belongs to the past.

A session lasts about 75 minutes. The sessions are normally conducted at one-week intervals. The duration depends on the complexity of your problem and the individual’s psychological composition.