Making the decision to have therapy to deal with past trauma and current difficulties is just the first step in your recovery process. You also have to choose the most appropriate type of therapy for your needs.

While traditional talk therapy works for many people, others get more benefits from different therapeutic techniques. For example, some people find that eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy works well for them.

How does EMDR therapy work? What are its benefits?

What Is EMDR Therapy?

Like any other therapy, EMDR therapy aims to help you deal with your problems. However, this process uses physical actions to make changes to the way you think and feel.

If you have suffered from trauma in the past or have current anxieties, then your brain can prevent you from processing what has happened to you and dealing with it. Triggers and circular thought patterns can trigger physical stress responses. These responses make it hard to move on.

During EMDR sessions, your therapist teaches you how to make specific eye movements. You learn how to move your eyes from side to side in set sequences. They then walk you through triggers or thought patterns which would normally put you in a stressed state.

During this process, you use your eye movements. They change the way your brain reacts to your traumatic memories. This adapts your normal stress responses, and over time, your brain learns to deal with your trauma in different ways. Your responses become less intense and more manageable.

While EMDR is often used for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), you can also use this therapy to deal with other habitual and difficult anxieties, stresses, and experiences.

What Are the Advantages of EMDR Therapy?

EMDR therapy can help you manage deep-seated and intense negative thoughts and feelings. If you can reprocess your brain, then you change its responses to trauma. Once you can do this, your trauma experience becomes more manageable and less intense.

So, you should find that your triggers become less of a problem, You'll be able to break negative thought chains.

EMDR also works fast. As soon as you master your eye movements and start to apply them, then you start to make cognitive changes. Some therapies can take months or even years to show some progress. Your progress here will be faster and more measurable.

This therapy is also a good option if you struggle with talk therapy. If you don't find it easy to talk about yourself and your experiences, then taking a physical route might be easier and more effective for you.

To learn more, contact an EMDR therapist. During your initial consultation, they can discuss your problems and tell you how they can help.