New Beginnings
EMDR Therapy for Trauma
New Beginnings is a Women s Therapy Center program specifically designed to help low income women have access to an effective form of trauma therapy called EMDR.
More about EMDR:
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a method of psychotherapy that has been extensively researched and has proven effective for the treatment of trauma. To date, EMDR has helped an estimated two million people of all ages relieve many types of psychological stress. This approach uses a bilateral stimulation technique (described below) within a set of eight phases that incorporates elements from many different treatment approaches.
No one knows how any form of psychotherapy works neurobiologically or in the brain. However, we do know that when a person is very upset, their brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. One moment becomes "frozen in time," and remembering a trauma may feel as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven’t changed. Such memories can have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way they relate to other people.
EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information. Following a successful EMDR session, normal information processing is resumed. A person no longer relives the images, sounds, and feelings when the event is brought to mind. You still remember what happened, but it is less upsetting. Many types of therapy have similar goals. However, EMDR appears to be similar to what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Therefore, EMDR can be thought of as a physiologically based therapy that helps a person see disturbing material in a new and less distressing way. The eight phase framework includes introduction, preparation, assessment, desensitization through bilateral stimulation (eye movements, taps, vibrating pulses, and audio tones), installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation.
If you want to learn more about how the treatment works or about the eight phases, you can visit www.emdrnetwork.org/description.html.
The New Beginnings Program was generously funded by the Barra Foundation, a private, not-for-profit philanthropic organization that primarily serves the five-county area of Greater Philadelphia. The Foundation’s principal focus is to make one-time and multi-year grants for innovative projects that aid in advancing the frontiers of knowledge in the fields of arts and culture, education, health, and human services. The Foundation has placed itself at the forefront of innovation in the field of women’s therapy.