What is EMDR

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a very effective method of Psychotherapy, developed in the 1980s by Francine Shapiro MD.

EMDR meanwhile has been recognized worldwide. Numerous scientific studies confirm the high and lasting effectiveness of this therapy method. While EMDR was originally mostly applied in traumatherapy, it is meanwhile successfully used in areas of different fears, addictions, psychosomatic diseases, chronic pain conditions, sexual problems and other disorders.

EMDR is a method, which enables fast processing of negative or even traumatic experiences. Normally experiences are being processed and integrated by our “system”. But if they are too serious, they leave wounds which can show up in numerous ways, for example in fears, hardened patterns of behavior or psychosomatic diseases. By time this increasing psychological strain influences our own flow of life.

EMDR has its foundation in a humanistic idea of man. It beliefs that in every human being lies an inherent natural drive for growth and integration of experiences – as long as it is able to unfold in a save enough environment.

What is the process of EMDR?

EMDR sessions hold a clear structure: after the initial talk, therapist and client together carve out a situation, which is significant for the present strain. In succession the client focuses on this situation while the therapist conducts the bilateral stimulation, meaning the stimulation of the two hemispheres through guided eye movement or short touch. Thus the attention of the client is focused as well on the inner experience as well as on the perception of the outer stimulation. Through this bifocal attention the process of healing is set in motion.

EMDR-clients often report of spontaneous inner realizations in connection with the traumatic memories, which give room to new emotions, thoughts and actions. They experience a clearly noticeable decrease of discomfort, emotionally as well as physically, and they develop a healthy positive self-image.

EMDR shows fast effect. Only a few sessions are often enough to process a single trauma like an accident, a physical surgery, or to find clear relief of fears like fear of flying, fear of medical treatment, performance anxiety or dehabituation of smoking and other addictions or of weight reduction. More complex issues like childhood trauma usually need a longer period of treatment along with other healing methods (f.e. somatic experiencing).

I offer individual session in both German and English.

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