Does a past traumatic experience still influence your responses, feelings, and thoughts? Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) can help you break away from negative thinking and reframe your emotions for improved mental wellbeing. David Salvage, MD, FAPM, has finished level III EMDR training, enabling him to offer this simple and successful therapy to his Brooklyn, Financial District, and Park Slope, New York patients. Schedule an appointment to find out more about EMDR in Park Slope by calling the office or using the online booking service.
What Is Emdr?
EMDR is a technique used to help individuals resolve the psychological impact of previous trauma or traumatic experience. Whether or not the incident resulted in psychiatric post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the emotional effects of the traumatic experience will spread a large net over your current mental state, impeding your ability to recover fully.
The purpose of EMDR is not to revisit the events of the past but to resolve the negative feelings and thoughts, which still arise when you are reminded of them. This constant pain keeps your brain from recovering because every time you have a negative feeling or thought about the previous incident, you revive the old wound, rarely enabling it to close completely.
Dr. Salvage enables you to redefine your thoughts and feelings into more constructive ones using a unique desensitization strategy. It relies on quick eye movements, allowing the brain to recover and leave the past behind you.
What Are Some of the Conditions that Emdr Can Help With?
Although EMDR was initially designed to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and trauma, Dr. Salvage utilizes it to treat a variety of treatment-resistant mental illnesses, including:
- Anxiety
- Phobias
- Depression
- Impulse Control Disorders
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Dr. Salvage has had a lot of success with EMDR in helping his patients who are stuck in therapy liberate themselves from their depressive feelings, irrespective of the hidden disorder. The only way to determine if EMDR is ideal for you would be to schedule a consultation for a comprehensive assessment with Dr. Salvage.
What to Expect with Emdr?
Although there are 8 stages of EMDR, the psychotherapy’s key goals are twofold. This includes desensitizing yourself to negative thoughts and emotions, then reprocessing or substituting them with fresh, more constructive ones. Suppose you have been involved in an automobile collision. Instead of dealing with overwhelming anxiety and fear of road traveling, Dr. Salvage will assist you in painting a different impression; one of strength and survival.
Dr. Salvage guides you through the eight stages to get you to this juncture. These include:
- Collecting historical information
- Getting ready
- Evaluation (establishing the negative feelings and thoughts)
- Desensitization by eye movements
- Constructing positive thoughts
- Perform a body scan to see how far you have come
- Closure (during the end of every session)
- Re-evaluation (at the start of every session)
EMDR is a powerful and, maybe more significantly, quick therapy. Dr. Salvage will assist you to stop the cycle of negative thoughts or feelings linked to a specific incident or situation if you have been struggling with it for years.
Dr. Salvage’s practice incorporates humanism, compassion, and meticulous clinical understanding, with the overarching aim of ensuring that every patient recovers completely. To determine how you can benefit from EMDR, call David Salvage, MD, FAPM, or fill out the online contact form to schedule a consultation today.