Does EMDR help Anxiety and OCD?

EMDR has proven to be a valuable and revolutionary treatment for many conditions, including anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). If you live with either of these conditions, learn more about how you can start taking your life back through EMDR therapy.

What does a life free of anxiety and OCD symptoms look like?

Imagine feeling free from intrusion and worry. Free of the excessive checking, anxiety, and wondering if everything is safe, clean, or locked. Does that future feel far away? 

What if you could step outside this moment and see a vision of hopeful possibility and celebration instead of relying on your current strategy that requires thorough planning for potential pain? In this vision of the future, there would be some uncertainty, sure, but there would also be balance that allows you to keep taking steps forward through these thoughts and feelings.

Imagine coming up against your fear and feeling empowered to move past it, or through it, without losing control of your thoughts.

In this ideal future, you would know that your fear is valid but that it cannot control you. It would not hold you back or imprison you in a cage of confrontation, or in a battle you could not win.

Imagine experiencing lower incidence of the compulsions that define your daily reality. 

There may still be a drive to complete the ritualistic tasks and routines in your life that OCD has demanded of you, but it will not be a relentless vice grip. There would be a loosening, through which you regain control of your thoughts and schedule. 

Imagine a richer experience of life alongside anxiety or OCD.  

Now, can you imagine it all without enduring grueling pain or months of therapy? EMDR is a short term therapy that can make it possible! While EMDR is not a cure-all, it’s certainly garnered enough evidence that these things you’re imagining could be possible in your life!

How does EMDR work for anxiety and OCD?

EMDR works for both anxiety and OCD by creating a new kind of brain stimulation to help your mind break the pattern loops that it currently gets stuck in. By using the reprocessing tool of bilateral stimulation, you can overwrite the intrusive and unwanted thoughts and ideas that underlie both of these conditions. EMDR can help you to break the deeply rooted connections that currently exist between the thought/idea and the action you must perform to rid yourself of it.

EMDR for Anxiety

For anxious people, EMDR is a redirect from the distressing thought patterns of anxiety. While you recall your triggers, we’ll work to shift your brain’s focus to the sensations and experiences you’re having alongside it and reprogram the associations that trigger your anxiety. EMDR is extremely effective at reducing anxiety and feelings of panic in people with anxiety disorder and research shows further promising development with EMDR and generalized anxiety as well. 

EMDR for OCD

For individuals with OCD, EMDR works in a similar fashion by refocusing your attention from the intrusive thoughts and compulsions toward the sensations and roots that fuel them. It helps us to work beneath the surface of your OCD so that you can interact more organically with the substance of your psyche and reprogram the way you understand and respond to your intrusive thoughts. While OCD is not a primary focus of EMDR research, there has been recent information that indicates that it may be more effective than CBT at reducing the daily disruption you experience. 

But OCD and anxiety aren’t the same thing 

While OCD and anxiety are not the same condition, they can both be supported through similar means—including EMDR therapy—due to the intrusive nature of them. Both OCD and anxiety are hallmarked by intrusive and unwanted thoughts. The way they manifest and progress looks markedly different, but there is power in recognizing the similarity between them. When we consider the root of your distress in therapy, you can start taking your life back. 

There is no cure for OCD or for anxiety disorder, but effective management of the intrusion or compulsion that each can cause in your day to day routine will vastly improve your quality of life. 

The Unique Benefits of EMDR therapy 

Originally developed to treat PTSD, EMDR is now world-renowned for helping people with a variety of life experiences overcome the things they don’t know how to talk about. Without asking you to relive or dwell in the intrusive and painful nature of thoughts you don’t want in the first place, EMDR works by allowing you to rewrite your thoughts through guided treatment. Undergoing EMDR therapy for OCD and anxiety brings unique benefits that will help you to harness a sense of control and power as you return to your sense of self.

EMDR can: 

• Help you improve emotional regulation 

• Reduce insomnia 

• Relieve tension associated with compulsion dread 

• Reduce stress and feelings of low mood 

• Boost your immune system 

• Make you feel more prepared to face the world 

• Offer more rapid results than other therapies

There are many other benefits that you may find EMDR has in your life and unique circumstances, particularly when you undergo EMDR from a trusted and knowledgeable practitioner. You can explore the process and more about my qualifications and how EMDR was developed here. If you would like to schedule an appointment to begin taking back your life through therapy, I am ready to help you thrive.