Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing – EMDR Treatment, Seattle

You may have heard of EMDR treatment. It’s a relatively new treatment technique that has been gaining ground both in popularity and in effectiveness. EMDR is a target-based approach. This means that we target one target/symptom at a time until all your symptoms are resolved to your satisfaction.

It can seem a bit odd, when you look at it from the outside or experience it yourself. In EMDR treatment, we sit across from each other and you follow my fingers, as they move back and forth, with your eyes and simply notice what is going on inside you. That’s it.

Seems too simple to be effective, doesn’t it? But it is effective. There has been a good deal of scientific research done on EMDR in order to establish its effectiveness and the results so far are positive. While it is not a cure-all, it does show amazing effectiveness in symptoms such as:

• Trauma
• PTSD
• Anxiety
• Excessive grief
• Sexual assault

And many more. For a more exhaustive list or to simply learn more about EMDR treatment, please visit my EMDR Frequently Asked Questions page. Also, you can visit the official website of the EMDR Institute by clicking here.

How would an EMDR treatment session look?

For the first few sessions, I will do standard history taking. After we’ve identified your targets, we will begin to get you set up. I start out by teaching you coping mechanisms and adding in safety nets as our work continues. Once those are in place, we begin EMDR treatment proper.

EMDR treatment sessions last 90 minutes. That’s an hour and a half. While they can be shorter (at 60 minutes), the longer sessions really are ideal. Generally we are able to get through a target in 1-3 sessions. Sometimes they may take longer, depending on the complexity of the target. We then move on to other targets at your choosing.

As always, I would love to answer any questions you may have about EMDR treatment or anything else so please contact me today!