What is EMDR?

EMDR is a treatment for healing traumatic memory. When we have an experience that overwhelms our pre-existing coping mechanisms, the brain tries to protect us. We form memories by attaching meaning to sensory input, which consolidates during sleep. EMDR works to re-work these memories in a way where we can associate more adaptive and constructive meaning to traumatic experience. Think of your long-term memory as a library with many aisles of books. Now imagine traumatic memories as books out of place (and thus hard to find). EMDR helps to find these books and put them back in the library so that aspects of a terrifying experience don't pop up in your life in unhelpful ways. 

What happens with eye movement? 

During sleep our eyes move back and forth quickly at times (known as R.E.M. sleep). It is thought that during this stage of sleep memory and learning is sorted and stored in long-term memory. Take the library metaphor above: during R.E.M. stage sleep the new books arriving to the library are sorted into their aisle categories with similar books).

What if thinking about my trauma is too triggering? 

Your safety and well-being is most important. Part of EMDR treatment is preparing you to begin processing, which includes building coping techniques to re-regulate your nervous system before the end of a session (i.e. self-soothing, grounding, and calming skills). In fact, more time may be spent in preparation to process as this is very important for you to engage in this treatment and still live your daily life.