Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, is a therapeutic technique developed to address a multitude of issues ranging from PTSD to depression, anxiety, eating disorders, and many more. When bad things happen to us, our brains adapt accordingly as a self-protective measure. While this adaptation may be lifesaving in the short term, it can form the basis of major obstacles later on. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to reprocess negative experiences and enable individuals to respond more appropriately to current stressors. EMDR has been found to be remarkably effective in working with victims of trauma, individuals suffering from depression, anxiety, phobias, and many other common therapeutic issues. Trained in EMDR and with several thousand hours of combined EMDR experience, Dr. McGowan and her team of EMDR-trained therapists work with individuals to overcome their own unique struggles.
EMDR has been proven effective for practitioners across the world. Read on for testimonials from Dr. McGowan's clients who have seen profound benefit from EMDR therapy.
At the end of the second EMDR session, one client, beaming, remarked through teary eyes,"I don't know what I'm going to do first! I can't remember the last time I didn't feel afraid of leaving my home, afraid of how people would see me."
Another client described their experience of EMDR as "weird...It's like, I know [the traumatic event] happened, but I don't see it the same way anymore. It's more distant...I can see it, but I don't have to be in it anymore when I think of it. It's like I'm watching it now, not re-experiencing it. I don't feel the same things I felt before." The most common outcome of EMDR is the movement from high emotional charge when recalling trauma to a neutral emotional experience of recalling the same event.
Another client was able to experience their relationships differently: "Before, I thought what [the person] said was directed at me, that it was my fault, that it was true, that I was defective somehow. I mean, why would he say it if it wasn't true? Now I see that it probably had nothing to do with me. What he said was about how he saw himself, not how he saw me. I feel so much freer. I feel lighter. I don't hate him the way I did."
Using EMDR, our therapists have helped clients resolve specific phobias -- driving again after an accident, insects, heights, etc. -- as well as experiences of sexual assault, childhood abuse, partner abuse, and much more. The goal of EMDR is to come to a space of acknowledgment that the traumatic event happened, but to see it as a thing that has happened already, rather than something that may happen again at any moment. When you aren't living in constant fear of being hurt again, you are free to live, to connect with other people and form healthy relationships, to breathe, without the weight of what has happened to you coloring your every experience. Freedom from our trauma is the goal.
Therapists at Ozark Psychotherapy Group trained in EMDR: