By Jamie Sedgwick, LCPC, NCC

EMDRIA Approved Consultant

 The therapy world seems full of abbreviations for various treatment modalities: CBT, DBT, ACT, IFS…. The list can go on and begin to feel a bit like sorting through alphabet soup. With Prince Harry's and other celebrities' help, another therapy abbreviation has been growing in popularity: EMDR, which is short for “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.” EMDR has been catching the attention of clients and clinicians, and, like the other alphabet-soup therapies, many are wondering: What is EMDR therapy?

A Little History

EMDR was created in 1987 by Francine Shapiro, who was a doctoral student at the time. The idea to begin exploring the link between eye movements and desensitizing distressing material came to her one day on a walk (Shapiro, 2018). Francine realized that the distressing material she was thinking about became less and less uncomfortable as she walked. She also noticed that her eyes...

By Rachel Harrison, LCPC

EMDRIA Approved Basic Trainer and Consultant

 Almost weekly, I have a conversation with a therapist that goes something like this:

Me: I am so glad to hear you treat trauma. I’d love to learn more about your approach!

Therapist: Well, you know, as we are working in session, my clients talk through their traumas and we find new insights.

Me: Oh, okay, I was hoping to find therapists that use modalities other than talk therapy.

What I am thinking and want to say is, “Wrong answer!” We know trauma is stored in the limbic brain, so we need a method other than talk therapy to access the trauma.  

Don’t get me wrong, I love therapy, and I love therapists! I believe all therapists do the best work they know how to do with their clients. But that’s just it: you can’t know what you don’t know.

The bottom line is talk therapy does not work to treat trauma. Trauma is stored in a different area of the...