I now use EMDR extensively in my counseling practice, and have witnessed a large amount of people heal from trauma and find the inner peace we all seek.

EMDR is an integrative process that was developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. in 1987. Many thousands of psychotherapists and counselors have been trained in EMDR since then and are very pleased with the clinical results. There are over 30,000 such clinicians worldwide.

EMDR is a process that promotes the integration of traumatic experiences into our sense of well-being. When traumatic experiences have not been fully cleared and completed, the present is filled with negative thoughts, emotions and physical sensations that range from annoying to debilitating. Our ability to effectively deal with present life challenges is handicapped until this traumatic material is sufficiently resolved. The traumatic symptoms are often referred to as PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Symptoms include: trouble sleeping, nightmares, flashbacks, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, unexplained physical pain and addictive behaviors, and more.

During an EMDR treatment, the patient is asked to recall a traumatic event that ties in with their present time distress and to focus on the related thoughts, feelings and body sensations connected with the trauma, while simultaneously doing eye movements or receiving knee taps as facilitated by the psychotherapist. The eye movements or taps are designed to connect the left and right brain hemispheres, so that how a client logically thinks about the traumatic event and how they feel about it are finally merged into the rational.