Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy was established by Francine Shapiro in the late 80’s. It is now one of the leading treatments for PTSD, CPTSD, stress, anxiety, complex grief, and many other issues. EMDR is an eight-phase treatment that targets experiences that have overwhelmed the brain’s adaptive processing system, resulting in the experience (or experiences) becoming stuck. Consequently, when a person’s own processing system has been hijacked, he or she often struggles with symptoms of trauma or harmful ways of coping in the present--even if the experience itself occurred months, years, or decades earlier. With EMDR therapy, the individual engages in reprocessing these experiences, resulting in increased insight into the event and changes in negative beliefs about self and others. For example, an officer with 30 plus years in law enforcement was struggling with symptoms of PTSD shortly after he entered into retirement. He identified a “parade of faces”: the calls that continued to haunt him, despite many of them occurring early in his career. After processing these calls, he recognized that there was nothing more he could have done during those calls to change the outcome. Beyond this realization, he noted a reduction in feelings of powerlessness and resulting symptoms of depression. Extensive research has been conducted on EMDR, with results that suggest that people are able to fully and completely recover from trauma related issues relatively quickly and with lasting results. If you think you or someone you know might benefit from EMDR therapy, learn more here: EMDR Institute, or call (207)200-4112 to discuss any questions you might have.