Side Effects of EMDR Treatments

Physical Side Effects of EMDR

Know­ing how a men­tal health treat­ment approach affects you, whether pos­i­tive­ly or neg­a­tive­ly is impor­tant to mak­ing an informed deci­sion on whether to move for­ward with the treat­ment, or even to pause treat­ment for a time. If you are part­nered, being aware of what side effects your com­pan­ion may expe­ri­ence dur­ing EMDR may also be help­ful in know­ing some options of what to expect dur­ing their repro­cess­ing of their expe­ri­ences. Ask­ing what are the side effects of EMDR treat­ments is a great place to start. Peo­ple com­mon­ly ask what are the phys­i­cal side effects, which I’ve out­lined below. The info­graph­ic below that also includes emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal side effects as well. 

Pos­i­tive phys­i­cal side effects can include: 

• Removal of body sen­sa­tions asso­ci­at­ed with the trau­ma
• Feel­ing lighter and less bur­dened
• Increased abil­i­ty to have sex with­out shame or dis­com­fort (where not caused by a med­ical con­di­tion) in sur­vivors of sex­u­al abuse
• Recall of sen­so­ry abil­i­ties lost in child­hood

Neg­a­tive phys­i­cal side effects can include: 

• Hav­ing a headache 
• Feel­ing tired or fatigued
• Feel­ing light­head­ed
• Uncom­fort­able body sen­sa­tions like pins and nee­dles
• Sleep­ing dif­fi­cul­ties

Read on below for addi­tion­al side effects not list­ed here. 

Please include attri­bu­tion to https://www.bridgehopefamilytherapy.com/ with this image and doc­u­ment.

Side Effects of EMDR Treat­ment

EMDR Therapy Utah 

As evi­denced above, the pos­i­tive side effects of EMDR treat­ments out­num­ber the neg­a­tive side effects of this treat­ment. It’s impor­tant to remem­ber that not every­one expe­ri­ences all of the side effects. If you are inter­est­ed in EMDR treat­ments and have addi­tion­al ques­tions about the side effects of EMDR, send me a mes­sage and we can talk about it. 

Send me a mes­sage and I’ll reach out to you