Sunday, September 7, 2014

The Effectiveness Of EMDR Therapy For PTSD

By Jody Leach


Some people have encountered several experiences which cause them to be traumatized. There are some who have undergone assault by other individuals and have been abused physically. Tragic accidents may also be causes like when the plane they are in crashes or accidents on the road. Loved ones who died due to illness or other reasons can cause trauma as well. The soldiers who are sent to war will have combat experiences.

For this, a post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD may be developed in an individual. For this, an eye movement desensitization and reprocessing or EMDR therapy for PTSD has been used. This is one of the ways in treating the said disorder. An individual will need to know several things about this therapy to help keep him informed about it.

Certain individuals who have experienced traumatic events may exhibit several changes in their behaviors. The slightest movements might be causes of irritation for them. They find it difficult to sleep at night. They might have flashbacks of the events and nightmares once in a while. Concentrating on a specific task which they are asked to perform can be difficult for them.

This therapy is divided into eight phases. In phase one, the therapists will make assessments about the stressful experiences of the patients. The patients may want to forget these things and they will have to talk about it to the professionals. In this session, as well, goals will be set which they want to obtain at the completion of this therapy.

During the second stage, those stressful events will be talked about. Reliving the moments and narrating them to the professional will have to be done by the patient. However, his emotional stability should be ensured first. The doctor can make use of a few relaxation techniques to ensure his emotional stability so that they can proceed.

In the third until the sixth phases, the beliefs, images, emotions and sensations related to the experiences are discussed. This will be done by the patient together with following the finger of the professional which is moving back and forth. They will have to repeat this activity until the client is not stressed anymore when discussing the events.

In the seventh stage, the patient will have to take note of anything that comes to his mind about the stressful event. The last one, stage eight, he will be evaluated with regards to the changes in his behavior. This is typically done at the last moments of the therapy.

Several studies and researches have been done by various medical groups with this method as their subjects as well as its effectiveness. Some of these studies prove that the method is effective in treating traumatized clienteles. There are also some studies which state that the method does not have any advantage over any other therapies done to these people.

Indeed some individuals were able to alleviate their lives using this method. However, as to how effective this is, it is not certainly clear as of this moment. What is important is that the purpose of this therapy is to help other people in letting go of the experiences which brought them stress and are hindering them from living their lives.




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