Seeing a therapist can also be traumatizing at first, as many people are often afraid to talk about traumatic events and the ways they deal with them. Therefore, it is important to establish an alliance between the therapist and the person seeking help before psychotherapy. In our clinic, the method for this is in the first meeting; is to take the "Life Story" of the person seeking help and subject it to some simple tests. With the help of these, the therapist and the help seeker determine the therapy goals during the process.
The method works in its classical form; The patient sits opposite the therapist. He expresses himself by talking about his trauma. The therapist moves his fingers back and forth, at the patient's eye level, while accompanying him with questions and empathy. The patient follows the therapist's fingers while describing the memory as he remembers it. Brain researchers hypothesize that a trauma may lead to "inexpressible fear" in which images of the experience are stored in the right hemisphere, while the language center in the left hemisphere is actively activated. He predicted that it would be suppressed. Because what is happening cannot be expressed in words, processing is made difficult or even prevented. During therapy, the patients' attention is doubled - on the one hand, they focus on the painful memory, and on the other hand, they focus on the silent movement of the practitioners' fingers. In this context, they become more and more observers of traumatized experiences, they manage to talk about devastating events, and painful memories gradually lose their power. In addition to this classical method, auditory and kinesthetic stimulations are also frequently used in EMDR treatment in our clinic. EMDR technique is supported with videos and music in the treatment of phobias or motivational interviews.
What is EMDR?
EMDR means "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing" . EMDR was created in 1987 by Francine Shapiro after a random observation. Shairo noticed that many stressful thoughts disappeared when he moved his eyes back and forth very quickly. After that, he continued to develop the method.
EMDR therapy is a supportive, structured and relaxing method. First, people who have suffered mental trauma It was developed for ar. By 2018, it has been revealed that it can help many other diseases. EMDR therapy differs from other therapy techniques in that it processes traumatic memories more quickly and allows rigid behavioral patterns to dissipate. A similar effect is also seen during adaptive processing during the person's REM sleep and dream stages. During the processing in EMDR, significant and permanent improvement symptoms usually begin to appear after 3 sessions. EMDR therapy; It posits one's self-healing power as a natural driver and innate tendency for maturation. In this sense, the therapist can activate the self-healing power of the people receiving help. During an EMDR treatment, the two hemispheres of the brain are active and dually stimulated in synchrony in terms of experienced events. Stimulation of the brain hemispheres initially occurred only with controlled eye movements. This is done in accordance with the REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep phase. Working our eyes with rapid movements is a kind of spiritual digestion process in the REM phase of sleep - the processing of daily events is probably strengthened. In recent years, apart from eye movements, auditory and kinesthetic stimulations are also used in EMDR treatment. By combining several senses, halves of the brain can be stimulated in a more complex way, leading to greater stimulation of the processing process. However, without the patient's data, it will not improve or change with EMDR. Therefore, EMDR aims very strongly at activating the patient's own resources, as this is ultimately the source of healing.
EMDR is one of the most surprising treatments of the past decades; It is mainly used by people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and those struggling with depression or panic attacks. This intriguing treatment has a groundbreaking effect on many people—as proven in many studies—who find themselves emotionally detached from the tragedies they have experienced.
EMDR from the 1980s to the Present Its Place in the World
EMDR was developed as a “psychotherapeutic therapy” in the United States in the 1980s. When it emerged as an "innovation", a new method created tremendous resistance like never before. In the last 20 years, EMDR has had more controlled clinical studies than other psychotherapeutic treatments. The results of these studies are so impressive that it is incomprehensible that EMDR is still described as a controversial method in its own country, the United States. Introduced in Europe, particularly in Germany in 1991, in the Netherlands, England and Italy, this "miracle method" has become well organized and has become part of the standard repertoire of many therapists. In June 2006, the Scientific Advisory Council on Psychotherapy has scientifically accepted EMDR for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder.
This technique is very interesting as Paul Watzlawick puts it: "If you only have a hammer as a tool, every problem is like a nail."
Since 2013, EMDR is one of the two methods recognized by the World Health Organization for the Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This method of psychotherapy is not a completed science; a continuous and ongoing development process continues to be evident. Positive results continues to be added to the literature.
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