EMDR: Therapeutic Technique For Children

What Does EMDR Look Like for Children?

EMDR for children involves a structured eight-phase process, incorporating bilateral
stimulation through guided eye movements, tactile tapping, or auditory cues. These bilateral
stimuli facilitate processing distressing memories and help children adapt to traumatic
experiences.

How Does EMDR Help Children?

This therapeutic method has shown success in alleviating various symptoms in children,
including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, nightmares, and behavioral difficulties.
EMDR works by enabling children to access and process memories associated with traumatic
events, allowing them to reframe negative beliefs about themselves and the world. By fostering
adaptive information processing, EMDR assists children in integrating their experiences into a
more coherent and manageable narrative.

This technique is also efficient with children challenged in verbal expression of emotions.
The structured yet flexible nature of EMDR allows therapists to tailor the approach to each
child’s self. EMDR is a versatile and effective tool for promoting healing and resilience in
adversity. Overall, EMDR for children provides a hopeful avenue for addressing trauma-related
symptoms, enhancing emotional well-being,

Additional Resources

Eating Disorders - It's Not About the Food

By Kelly Lopez

If it’s not about the food, what is it really about?

The eating disorder serves a function, it does a job. Despite the problems an eating disorder creates, it is an effort to cope, shield against, communicate, and solve problems. Behaviors may be a way to establish a sense of power or control, self-worth, strength, and containment. Bringing may be used to numb pain. Purging may be a way to release emotions. When one cannot cope in healthy ways, adaptive functions (behaviors) are created to ensure a sense of safety, security, and control.
According to Carolyn Costin*, some of the “adaptive functions that eating disorder behaviors commonly serve are”:
It’s not about the food, it’s a way of coping with low self-esteem, negative emotions, physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, unstable home, difficulty resolving conflict and much more.
*Costin, Carolyn. The Eating Disorder Sourcebook: A Comprehensive Guide to the Causes, Treatments and Prevention of Eating Disorders. 3rd. edition, McGraw Hill, 2007.
Fuller, Kristen. “Eating Disorders: It’s Not All about Food.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 22 Mar. 2017