Psychological trauma is a person’s experience of emotional distress resulting from an event that overwhelms their capacity to digest it. Almost everyone who experiences trauma will be emotionally affected, however not everyone will respond in the same way. Whilst most people will recover within a week or two with support of friends and family, for others the effects can be long lasting and seeking professional support is important. Traumatic events can include sudden and unexpected events such as experiencing or witnessing a serious accident, assault, abuse, war or natural disaster, or learning that a family or friend was seriously hurt or died suddenly. Other traumatic events, such as childhood sexual abuse, can happen repeatedly over a long period of time.

EMDR is a powerful and evidence-based psychotherapy that assists people to process trauma and other life experiences that continue to be emotionally distressing. EMDR assists by activating the brain’s natural information processing system to unblock traumatic experiences so that healing can resume. For more information please see https://emdraa.org/emdr-faq/.