Eye movement, desensitization and reprocessing is a powerful brief therapy, developed by Francine Shapiro in the 1980s, which uses eye movements to reprocess traumatic events. Shapiro noted, as she walked through the forest, that moving her eyes to and fro as she thought about her problem made her feel better.

She developed a rigorous therapy that is probably the most thoroughly researched of any type of therapy. It has been used extensively and with great success with, for example, traumas (PTSD), phobias, excessive grief, and survivors of rape and sexual abuse - even decades after the original events.

Difficult experiences usually make us feel bad for a short time. Then naturally, and without any effort on our part, we feel better again. But some things get stuck, so that if something happens that reminds us (even if only unconsciously) of that original episode, we revert back to those same feelings we had before. EMDR enables those stuck feelings and experiences to be reprocessed naturally and quickly, allowing us to feel normal again.

I ask you to think of the particular incident that made you feel bad. Perhaps there's a specific picture (scene) that you recall. As you look at it, what do you feel inside? Where do you feel it? What emotion are you feeling? What do you believe about yourself and your limitations in the world as you think of that incident? I ask you to give that feeling a score between 0 (neutral feeling) and 10 (the worst possible feeling you can imagine). What would you like to believe about yourself? Give the strength of this belief a score between 1 (hardly believe it at all) and 7 (you believe it absolutely).

Then, with your awareness focused on these feelings and memory, I ask you to watch my fingers as I move them from side to side. By moving your eyes in this manner your brain (mostly unconsciously) reprocesses that experience that was stuck in your neurology. Any combination of thoughts, pictures, memories, feelings are experienced. It is sometimes like re-experiencing the original events, but in accelerated form. You know that, very quickly, you'll get through those difficult experiences and feel all right again.

Those bad feelings, and all the thoughts and memories associated with them, are reprocessed. They aren't erased from your memory, but inappropriate feelings are systematically eradicated - however bad they were. You will probably forget you ever felt so bad.

When the bad feelings are reprocessed, down to 0 or 1/10 (at the most), we'll apply eye movements to the belief you would like to have, until it becomes 6 or 7/7.