Part 1: CUTV News Radio Spotlights EMDR Pioneer Katie O’Shea

Nampa, ID – Katie O’Shea has been a practicing psychotherapist for nearly 45 years and a pioneer in the therapeutic use of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR.

O’Shea was first introduced to EMDR in 1989.

“When we found out EMDR, we were totally amazed by its potential,” recalls O’Shea. “It's the most efficient, effective, empowering therapy I've ever been able to find. People have an opportunity to really experience what incredible beings we are and how everything is connected and how we learn automatically.”

Prior to EMDR, O’Shea worked primarily through Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. EMDR accelerates the processing of emotions associated with trauma to the body level without asking people to revisit their trauma repeatedly or repeatedly rehearse changes in their thinking.

“We don't know what associations are going to be made with the traumas that we're dealing with,” says O’Shea. “We need to take the time to review these experiences in a safe way to determine what was important, what wasn’t, and what we can and cannot do about it.”

“It's empowering because the client sees what they're capable of and the potential for change,” says O’Shea. “The two primary ways we store memory are when something happened and where we were. EMDR helps us register the importance of the event and the trapped emotional energy dissipates.”

O’Shea says the structure of the scripted EMDR protocol provides a predictability to the experience for the clients.

For more information on EMDR, visit www.emdria.org