Therapeutic Approach and Treatment
EMDR Therapy Treatment at Tranquilamente
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapeutic approach endorsed by the World Health Organization (WHO) and major international clinical guidelines for its high efficacy and speed in resolving traumas and emotional blockages.
What is the Origin of EMDR?
The technique was discovered in the United States in 1987 by psychologist Francine Shapiro. By chance, while walking through a park observing her own stressful thoughts, she noticed that by moving her eyes from side to side the negative emotional charge of her reflections drastically decreased. After years of research with Vietnam war veterans and trauma victims, she consolidated this structured protocol that has transformed modern psychotherapy.
How Does EMDR Therapy Work?
Let's imagine the brain as a large central processor that categorizes and saves experiences in "folders" within memory. When an overwhelming event occurs, the machine suffers an overload and the file is saved defectively, generating a continuous "error" warning (symptoms of anxiety or trauma).
EMDR therapy does not erase the memory nor alter actual recollection; what it achieves is desensitizing the emotional charge and reprocessing the information. By alternately activating both cerebral hemispheres through bilateral stimulation, key structures like the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex are stimulated. This allows the brain to "reorder the files," integrating the experience into the past and freeing the present from its negative weight.
The Phases of the Therapeutic Process
At the Tranquilamente clinic, we apply the standardized EMDR protocol ensuring your safety and stability at all times:
- 1. Clinical history and evaluation: We identify target memories, current symptoms, and your therapeutic goals.
- 2. Preparation and stabilization: We teach you emotional self-regulation techniques and coping resources so you feel safe before addressing traumatic memories.
- 3. Target assessment: We select the specific memory to work on, identifying the visual image, the negative belief about yourself, and the associated physical sensation.
- 4. Desensitization: We apply bilateral stimulation (visual, auditory, or via the Wireless EMDR KIT) while you process the experience, until the emotional disturbance drops to zero.
- 5. Installation of positive belief: We strengthen an integrating and healthy thought about yourself (for example, "I am safe now" or "I am in control").
- 6. Body Scan: We ensure that no residual somatic tension related to the memory remains.
- 7. Closure and Reevaluation: We guarantee you leave the session in a state of calm and evaluate progress in subsequent appointments.
At Tranquilamente, we offer welcoming facilities and state-of-the-art technology to accompany you in this transformation process, helping you leave pain in the past and build a future with peace of mind.
Specialists in the treatment of EMDR Therapy
Overview
At the Tranquilamente clinic, we understand that past experiences should not condition your current well-being or your future peace of mind. Therefore, we approach EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) from a comprehensive perspective based on three fundamental pillars:
- Past: We work to process and consolidate those memories that were not adaptively stored and that continue to generate suffering or blockage in your current life.
- Present: We intervene directly on the daily triggers or stimuli that activate the response of discomfort, distress, or disturbance in your day-to-day life.
- Future: We prepare you to face potentially stressful upcoming situations, equipping you with tools, internal resources, and healthy response patterns.
To offer you maximum effectiveness and comfort, we incorporate the latest generation Wireless EMDR KIT technology. This wireless system allows us to apply bilateral stimulation more comfortably, precisely, and personally.
At Tranquilamente, we practice EMDR therapy with closeness, empathy, and maximum clinical rigor, guaranteeing a safe space where you can heal at your own pace and regain control of your life.
Main Symptoms
When we experience an overwhelming event, our brain may have difficulty processing the information. This causes the event to "get trapped" in working memory with the same emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations as the original moment. EMDR therapy is especially indicated if you experience any of the following symptoms:
Psychological and Emotional Symptoms
- Intrusive thoughts and images: Involuntary memories or flashbacks that make you relive the traumatic experience as if it were happening again.
- Constant feeling of threat or hypervigilance: Permanent state of alert, irritability, or exaggerated startle responses.
- Conscious or unconscious avoidance: Need to avoid places, people, conversations, or thoughts that remind you of the painful event.
- Emotional blockage or numbness: Difficulty feeling positive emotions, disconnection from the environment, or feeling of emptiness (dissociation).
- Unreasonable negative beliefs: Recurrent thoughts like "I am not safe", "I am guilty", "I am worthless", or "I cannot trust anyone".
Somatic and Physical Symptoms
- Embodied anxiety: Chest tightness, tachycardia, difficulty breathing, or knot in the stomach with no organic medical cause.
- Sleep disturbances: Onset insomnia, recurrent nightmares, or nighttime awakenings with a sense of distress.
- Chronic muscle tension: Headaches, bruxism, or persistent fatigue resulting from nervous system overload.
Common Types
EMDR therapy is a versatile approach that we adapt at Tranquilamente according to the nature of the patient's experiences and available bilateral stimulation modalities:
By Scope of Clinical Application
- EMDR for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): Indicated for processing time-bound traumatic events with severe symptoms.
- EMDR for Complex Trauma (C-PTSD): Aimed at individuals who have suffered repeated traumatic experiences over time, especially in childhood or attachment relationships.
- EMDR for Anxiety Disorders and Phobias: Desensitization of specific irrational fears (flying, public speaking, agoraphobia) or panic attacks.
- EMDR for Complicated Grief: Helps process the pain of loss when the natural grieving process has become blocked.
- EMDR for Performance Enhancement and Self-Esteem: Strengthening internal resources and eliminating limiting beliefs in personal, sports, or professional areas.
By Bilateral Stimulation Modalities
To achieve neurological unlocking, we use three alternating stimulation pathways between the two cerebral hemispheres:
- Visual Stimulation: The patient follows the therapist's alternating movements or light points with their eyes, without moving their head.
- Tactile Stimulation: Through our Wireless EMDR KIT, the patient holds two small devices (tappers) that emit a gentle, rhythmic, alternating vibration in each hand.
- Auditory Stimulation: Through headphones, the patient hears a gentle tone or sound that progressively alternates between the left and right ear.