Thank you for "Shedding the Burden of Depression and Anxiety" (April 2008).* I'd like to clarify some points about Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a complex psychotherapy that can be used to treat posttraumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder.
The goal of EMDR is to help the patient process unresolved traumas that continue to impact and limit her quality of life. During therapy, bilateral stimulation (eye movement or tactile or auditory stimulation) is utilized to activate the brain's information processing system. As the patient follows specific protocols to access and process the traumatic experience, dysfunctional thoughts, sensations, and emotions that were stored in isolated neurologic networks at the time of the trauma are experienced, transformed, and replaced with adaptive ones. She puts the experience in appropriate perspective, learns from it, and stores it in normal declarative memory. Although the therapist facilitates therapy by guiding her through the protocols, EMDR isn't talk therapy.
Your readers can find more about EMDR at http://www.emdr.org and http://www.emdria.org.
MARCY J.T. SMITH, RN, MS, FAIS
West Barnstable, Mass.
*Individual subscribers can also access these articles free online at http://www.nursing2008.com. [Context Link]