Eye movement and attachment-based reprocessing theory (EMDR) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress resulting from disturbing life experiences.

Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy, people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.

EMDR therapy shows that the mind can heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes.

The brain's information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes. More than 30 positive controlled outcome studies have been done on EMDR therapy.

Some studies show that 84%-90% of single-trauma victims no longer have post-traumatic stress disorder after only three 90-minute sessions. Another study, funded by the HMO Kaiser Permanente, found that 100% of the single-trauma victims and 77% of multiple-trauma victims were no longer diagnosed with PTSD after only six 50-minute sessions. In another study, 77% of combat veterans were free of PTSD in 12 sessions.

There has been so much research on EMDR therapy that it is now recognized as an effective treatment for trauma and other disturbing experiences by organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization and the Department of Defense. Over 100,000 clinicians throughout the world use the therapy.

Millions of people have been treated successfully over the past 33 years. EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment. E In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level.

The insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation but from the client's own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes.

The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the experiences that once debased them. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the client's thoughts, feelings and behaviour are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution.