EMDR Therapy and PTSD

Name: EMDR Therapy and PTSD
Rating: 4.1 (869 reviews)

An Introduction to Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and the Neuropsychology of PTSD

Created byHuman Science

Last updated 6/2022

English

What you'll learn

The EMDR Model and Protocol
The Bilateral Stimulation Eye Movement Technique of EMDR
Main theories about how EMDR works
The causes, diagnosis and symptoms of PTSD
The relationship between PTSD and EMDR
The Role of Memories in PTSD
How the Brain Creates Memories from Traumatic Experiences
How EMDR Reprocesses Traumatic Memories

Course content

8 sections • 40 lectures • 2h 56m total length

An overview of EMDR and the purpose of this course10:09
Explore EMDR therapy for PTSD and its broader uses, including anxiety, depression, and panic attacks. Learn about bilateral stimulation—visual, auditory, tactile—and how EMDR can support mindfulness, meditation, and inner peace.

How those with PTSD are haunted by memories2:59
Francine Shapiro and her accidental discovery of EMDR3:47
The confounding search for evidence to support EMDR3:22
The EMDR Stage by Stage Protocol11:35
The EMDR Model of Memory Processing2:50
Explore how the adaptive information processing model explains PTSD, where traumatic memories stay vivid, and how the MDR protocol uses bilateral stimulation to facilitate processing.

The Stress Response3:41
Explore how the immune response and the orienting response prepare the body to assess threats, triggering either the relaxation response or the stress response.
How our beliefs trigger the Stress Response2:11
Our beliefs about safety trigger the stress response, producing a surge of energy to fight or flight, with turbulence illustrating that a stressor is subjective.
Chronic stress and why it leads to illness4:42
The stress response boosts energy by increasing oxygen and glucose delivery for fight or flight, then reallocates energy from hair growth, healing, and bones, leading to illness under chronic stress.
Acute stress and the foundations of PTSD6:34
Explain acute and chronic stress, how brief stressors trigger a temporary stress response versus lasting symptoms, and how acute stress disorder can progress to PTSD after one month.

Introducing the Neuropsychology of Memory1:14
Explore how the brain processes challenging experiences, forms memories, and recalls them, and examine theories about how MDR seems to relieve PTSD symptoms through bilateral stimulation.
How sensations provide the raw material for experience3:47
Explore how experiences begin as sensations from the five senses and how the brain translates them into electrochemical language via transduction.
How sensations reach the brain1:46
How sensations become perceptions3:12
How past experiences shape perceptions2:53

The central role of the hippocampus in our moment-to-moment experience2:38
Selecting moments of experience for long term memory storage1:52
How emotionally intense experiences become permanent memories2:17
Explain how the hippocampus decides which short-term memories to store based on emotional intensity and how the amygdala provides the emotional context that shapes long-term memory.
The role of the amygdala in identifying emotional experiences2:21
How remembering revives feelings associated with the original experience4:45
The sensory mental imagery that memories are made of3:30
How EMDR relieves the intensity of traumatic memories1:53
Help individuals with post-traumatic stress reduce emotional intensity and vivid sensory imagery of traumatic memories. Explore how processing, possibly involving the hippocampus, reduces distress, self-criticism, hopelessness, and bodily sensations.
The Working Memory Theory of EMDR5:24
Recap of EMDR Theory2:15

Semantic memories2:55
Autobiographical memories3:38
Understand autobiographical memories, or episodic memory, and how the hippocampus retrieves life episodes. Note how hippocampal damage disrupts personal memories while semantic and procedural memories remain intact.
A famous case of forgetfulness2:43
Unconscious memories2:02
The danger of misusing unconscious memories in therapy1:59
Why autobiographical memories are unreliable3:43
Why we can confuse memories with fantasies2:48
Memory consolidation and PTSD8:11
The REM Sleep Theory of EMDR3:19
The Interhemispheric Theory of EMDR4:24

Requirements

Have an interest in trauma and the brain.

Description

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) has grown faster than any other form of psychotherapy.

It has helped hundreds of thousands of people reduce the intensity of their distress.

EMDR was originally developed to treat Post-Traumatic Disorder (PTSD).

Then therapists and patients found that it is often effective in alleviating the symptoms of many other psychological conditions and challenges.

Today the infamous Eye Movement Technique is often synthesized with mindfulness practices to create a transformative form of meditation that can reduce stress, induce relaxation, and help cultivate a state of clarity creativity.

EMDR has also remained controversial since its first discovery, because despite numerous theories, nobody knows exactly how or why it works.

This course provides a concise yet comprehensive insight into all aspects of EMDR and its applications, and includes videos for use in your own meditation practice.

Please note that the course:

Does not provide therapy for those with PTSD
Does not provide a clinical training in the application or administering of EMDR

Who this course is for:

The course is for anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of EMDR.

EMDR Therapy and PTSD

What you'll learn

Explore related topics

Course content

Prologue1 lecture • 10min

An Introduction to EMDR5 lectures • 25min

EMDR and PTSD4 lectures • 15min

Types of Stress4 lectures • 17min

EMDR and the Neuropsychology of Human Experience5 lectures • 13min

EMDR and the Traumatised Brain9 lectures • 27min

EMDR and the Reprocessing of Memories10 lectures • 36min

Example EMDR Audio Visual Bilateral Stimulation Video2 lectures • 34min

Requirements

Description

Who this course is for: