EMDR at Spring Ridge Academy

Gary Hees, MA, LPC, Clinical Director

The therapists at Spring Ridge Academy have just completed their EMDR Level I and II training and will be awarded their Certificates of Completion shortly. The course of training included two 3-day workshops of which half was application/practice oriented. Each workshop is followed by a required six hours of consultation on live cases with an approved EMDR Institute practitioner. The therapists at SRA chose to do this with Carolyn Settle MA, LPC, who is the leading authority in the field of EMDR when used with children and adolescents. We have already had several examples of startling positive results in relatively short time frames.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapeutic model that utilizes bi-lateral stimulation to allow the brain to reprocess events that were traumatic to the student.

The method has lots of clinical research behind it and is the Treatment of Choice by the Department of Defense for addressing PTSD in returning military personnel. We at SRA have found it to be not only effective for trauma resulting from verbal, physical and sexual assault, but also very useful in resolving the pent-up emotions carried by an adolescent from relational injury given or received in the family. In some cases we find that EMDR is also beneficial for the parents and we refer them to 2-3 EMDR therapists near their home. They choose the best fit for them and then they too reap the benefits of EMDR.