The brain can be compared to a super information highway comprised of interconnected neural circuitry. Think of trauma like neural roadblocks or looping round-a-bouts that prevent traffic (trauma) from flowing.

The bilateral stimuli in EMDR--visual, tactile or auditory-- set the brain to work untangling, clearing and reconnecting new neural networks that allow the information highway to flow again. 

Think of REM sleep and how the eyes go rapidly back and forth. REM sleep activates the unconscious material that needs processing. Likewise, the EMDR protocol uses alternating bilateral stimuli to activate the brain's biological mechanism for resolving disturbing psychological content.​

​​These neural networks make new connections that result in adaptive information processing--ie., new learning, healthy detachment, understanding, clarity, resolution of the originating trauma, desensitization of triggers, release of emotional distress, re-regulation of the nervous system, break-through cognitive insights and and embodied sense of security. Because EMDR acts at the level of human physiology and neurobiology, it enables rapid, effective and sustainable change.​​​​​​