Addiction treatment can now be accomplished with EMDR. Findings show that 91 percent out of those who received EMDR graduated from the court program compared to 62 percent of those who did not receive treatment.
EMDR, What is It?
The acronym EMDR stands for Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. Developed by Francine Shapiro, EMDR is a form of psychotherapy. EMDR highlights disturbing memories as the origin of psychopathology.
The treatment functions by helping to alleviate the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. EMDR is able to decrease the long-lasting effects of upsetting memories. This therapy uses an eight-phase approach including having you recall disturbing mental images while receiving one of several types of bilateral sensory input, such as side to side eye movements.
The goal of EMDR therapy is to allow you to fully process the experiences that are causing issues. The beneficial parts from an experience will be learned, and stored with the appropriate emotions in your brain. This will be able to guide you in a positive way for your future. All unsuitable emotions, beliefs, and physical sensations will be cast-off. EMDR therapy aims to empower you with the emotions, understanding, and perspectives that will promote healthy and useful behaviors and interactions. The first step is memories from the past then disturbance in the present and lastly actions for the future. These are divided into eight phases of treatment.
1st Phase: Treatment Planning and History
In this first phase of EMDR treatment, your therapist takes a detailed look at your history and develops a plan for your treatment. Included in this phase is a discussion in order to target the problem that has carried you into therapy, your behaviors growing from this issue, and the symptoms you display.
2nd Phase: Preparation
In this phase your therapist will teach you techniques in order for you to deal rapidly with any emotional disturbance that arise. Part of the goals of the preparation phase is to establish a trusting relationship between you and the therapist.
3rd Phase: Assessment
The 3rd phase accesses each target defined in phase 1. In a controlled way so it can be effectively processed by you.
4th Phase: Desensitization
This phase deals with all your responses as the targeted event changes and its disturbing elements are resolved.
5th Phase: Installation
Here you concentrate on increasing the potency of the positive belief that you have recognized to substitute your initial negative belief.
6th Phase: Body scan
After the positive thought has been installed, the therapist will ask you to bring the initial target event to mind and see if you notice tension remaining in your body. If this is the case, then these physical feelings are targeted for reprocessing.
7th Phase: Closure
The closure phase makes sure that you leave each session feeling better than at the start.
8th Phase: Re-evaluation
Here the therapist checks to ensure that the positive effects have been sustained, recognizes any new symptoms that need to be treated, and continues to reprocess the extra targets.
Where can I receive EMDR?
Many rehabs offer EMDR for inpatients. An inpatient rehab program creates the structure and sober environment while the EMDR can be used to help extract issues for you to process. Try Beachside Rehab for confidential expert advice.