Natural Healing with EMDR is the latest and one of the most effective treatments for trauma. It was 'discovered' in 1989 by Francine Shapiro, a New York psychologist now living in California. It now is being given wide attention in America, Australia, and Western Europe--largely because its successes. It got its first application with Vietnam vets who developed Posttraumatic Stress Syndrome. Traditional trauma treatment methods had little effectiveness with this group of people. EMDR was so successful that it was soon applied to other traumas, such as those accompanying rape, incest, child abuse, phobias and a variety of self-esteem issues.

EMDR seems to work by stimulating natural healing processes in the brain. The natural healing can work quickly and dramatically. Although there is evidence of a generalization effect following EMDR treatment it is also possible that the treatment can cause recall of other forgotten material.

It is thought that painful memories are retained in the brain and body in an unresolved state. Normal neurological reprocessing of information does not always occur with these memories, perhaps because they are too painful. That is, whenever the victim brings the information to consciousness, it is automatically avoided, and not reprocessed. The neurological activity involved in reprocessing information is often accompanied by the same eye-movement in REM (Rapid Eye-Movement) sleep, deep trance, or daydreams. Hence, the name of the method, "eye-movement desensitization". However, other forms of rhythmical stimulation can be used in a way that will activate the brain's information processing system.

With EMDR therapy it is unnecessary to explore decades of old psychological material. Instead, by activating the information-processing system of the brain, people can achieve their therapeutic goals at a rapid rate, with recognizable changes that don't disappear over time.

EMDR's basic operation is manual stimulation of eye-movement by the therapist, who moves her finger (or a wand) in front of the client's face. The client is instructed to follow the moving wand with their eyes. Prior to this, the client is instructed to recall a troublesome or painful representation of memory along with the feelings, body sensations and beliefs that accompany the memory.

A common result is that visual memory of the trauma is harder to remember, and is sometimes eliminated completely. Emotional and somatic (body) discomfort is significantly decreased and is frequently replaced by feelings of neutrality and changed beliefs about the memories in question. When trauma is removed from memories, the client may experience feelings of relief. This would be particularly true with a client who led a normal life prior to the onset of trauma. In some cases where the traumatic memories have existed since childhood, the client needs therapy to master the changes that can follow. For these reasons, EMDR is best used in conjunction with regular therapy.