Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a model of psychotherapy developed to decrease and eliminate distress caused by trauma. The original research was done with war veterans with PTSD. The research has since shown positive outcomes for symptoms related to depression, anxiety, and other trauma responses.

The theory is that eye movements in EMDR mimic how our eyes naturally move during REM sleep (dream sleep). If you’ve ever looked at someone sleeping while dreaming, you might have noticed that you can see their eyes move back and forth under their eye lids. Dreams are a way for our brains to process information from the day or past memories. EMDR uses these same eye movements, but while awake and alert. This way we can process past experiences in a similar manner as dreaming, but while conscious.

EMDR helps clients to re-process traumatic memories so that the painful emotions are no longer associated with the event, causing life distress.