EMDR Therapy in Gainesville, FL

The most common use of EMDR is for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It can also be used in the treatment of conditions such as: 

• Anxiety disorders like panic disorder, phobias, and social anxiety. 
• Depression disorders such as major, persistent, and illness-related depression. 
• Eating disorders like anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge-eating disorder. 
• Gender dysphoria, the distress a person experiences due to a mismatch between their gender identity (their personal sense of their own gender) and their sex assigned at birth.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorders like OCD and body dysmorphic disorder.
• Personality disorders like borderline personality disorder, avoidant personality disorder, and antisocial personality disorder. 

• Effective for trauma recovery: once the trauma is ingrained in your mind, it can be tough to avoid triggers that make you relive the experience. EMDR allows your brain to reorganize your thoughts so you no longer feel controlled by the event.
• It tends to work faster than other forms of therapy: people receiving EMDR typically start seeing results much sooner than with other forms of treatment.
• Addresses anxiety and circular thinking: when an anxious thought spiral is ingrained in your mind, it can feel inescapable. With the help of EMDR, you can address fears without becoming lost in your anxiety. 

• It only works with conditions related to traumatic experiences: If you have a hereditary mental condition or another physical effect on your brain, EMDR is unlikely to help. 
• It’s a new method: the biggest criticism of EMDR is that it hasn’t been used long enough to draw long-term conclusions since it was pioneered in 1989 by Shapiro.

EMDR has a very low risk. But one concern about it is the creation of false memories because of the ones that were not properly processed. It can also bring negative thoughts or feelings between sessions, and patients may experience vivid dreams as they begin to face their traumatic memories.