Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) has been en vogue recently. You may know it as the wacky therapy where the therapist waves their fingers in front of your face. You may have heard of it because Miley Cyrus talked about her EMDR experience on Tik Tok. It seems to be the new hot treatment on the market. If you’re anything like me, you might find yourself skeptical about anything that seems to be a fad!

Let’s face it– for anyone, life has many unpleasant and painful emotional experiences. For most, the instinct in the face of uncomfortable emotions is to make them stop, avoid them at all costs. This may work to relieve distress in the moment, but unfelt and unacknowledged emotions stay stuck and fester. They won’t leave you alone until they are truly felt. As the refrain goes, the only way out is through. No matter how unpleasant, we have to feel our feelings.