EMDR - (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

EMDR therapy is an evidence-based treatment that has been demonstrated to be effective in reducing trauma-related stress, anxiety, and depression symptoms in children and adults (EMDR Foundation, 2012).

The successful implementation of EMDR has been found to relieve affective distress, reformulate negative beliefs, and reduce physiological arousal, by targeting dysfunctionally stored memories while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation, and processing new information to create new associations in the brain (EMDR Institute, Inc., n.d.). Overall, EMDR is considered to be a safe treatment that causes fewer adverse reactions than medications for trauma symptoms, and also, maintains its effectiveness after treatment ends (Leonard, 2019).