EMDR Effective for Addiction

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Heart and Mind Counseling, LLC, located in Michigan, offers a variety of counseling services to patients; including addiction, alcohol use, drug use, and gambling just to name a few. Heart and Mind Counseling in Michigan has an on staff EMDR Trained Therapist in Michigan, specializing in a variety of Addictions to help clients develop a path to recovery.

The Current Need

In addition to historical trauma that impacts patients, the COVID19 Pandemic escalated addictions, alcohol use, drug use and gambling, due to isolation, uncertainty, and distress. Today, there is a greater need for mental health resources to enable people to begin the healing process. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an effective form a therapy.

Alarmingly, drug addiction is actually considered to be a global pandemic impacting millions of people worldwide (Virrey Jr & Dominguez, 2021) Not only is the person addicted suffering, but the addiction has negative consequences for the person’s family and friends. An essential factor in addiction is the patients’ ability to self-regulate. Studies show that EMDR treatment enables patients to improve self-regulation and underlying areas such as self-control, sense of well-being and positive actions. (Virrey Jr & Dominguez, 2021)

 

What is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a form of therapy that focuses on the past, present and future. Past – refers to any memory that invokes an uncomfortable or traumatic emotional response. Present – refers to current events that result in a stressful reaction. Future – the patient will learn skills needed to sustain positive outcomes (EMDR Institute, 2022)


Does EMDR Work for Addictions?

Scelles & Bulnes (2021) state Five (5) studies have been conducted to measure the effectiveness of EMDR with patients with Addictions-Alcohol use, drug use and gambling with positive results. The target group was addiction memories. EMDR Therapy has shown patients benefit from this form of treatment. Results show a significant impact on cravings with the maintenance support at 6 months follow-up (Scelles & Bulnes, 2021). These results have indicated EMDR shows high potential in helping those with addictions.


What to Expect with EMDR Therapy

People typically think therapy will take years to see the full impact of treatments in a patient. New studies indicated that EMDR therapy shows promising results in a much shorter time period. Patients with emotional distress and pain can heal. EMDR Therapy studies show that the mind can heal from trauma much as the body heals from physical distress (EMDR Institute, 2022). Heart and Mind Counseling LLC in Michigan can help you with these challenges.

EMDR Therapy enables patients to get past negative or disturbing mental blocks to begin the healing process. Patients will learn the triggers that impact their specific addiction and how to successfully handle current stressful situations without resorting to the addiction. Many forms of addictions, alcohol use, drug use, gambling, can be treated with a trained EMDR Therapist. This is why it was so important to Heart and Mind Counseling, LLC in Michigan to have EMDR Therapy available to our clients.

 

What to Do

If you or someone you know is struggling with alcohol use, drug use, gambling or any other form of addiction, please call Heart and Mind Counseling, LLC in Michigan for a free consultation to see how we can help you. EMDR has been scientifically proven to be a life-changing therapy for many people. You are worth the call. Do not suffer any longer, call us (707) 815-0374, email us [email protected] to make an inquiry. We can start moving you towards feeling better today!

The Heart and Mind Counseling experts are committed to helping patients take better control of their mental health in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Iowa, and Texas. Reach out to us start your healing journey with our individual counseling experts.

 

References:
Link to the EMDRIA web page

Scelles, C., & Bulnes, L. C. (2021). EMDR as treatment option for conditions other than PTSD: A systematic review. Frontiers in Psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.644369

Virrey Jr., A. V., & Dominguez, J. N. (2021). Efficacy of eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR) in improving self-regulation of in-house Filipino clients with substance-use-disorder. PSIKODIMENSIA, 20(1), 87. https://doi.org/10.24167/psidim.v20i1.3231

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