Community Counseling Services is proud to announce 4 therapists have now been trained and are providing Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy in Huron and Madison.  In  Huron, EMDR therapists are: Tammy Dramstad, CSW-PIP  and Clinical Director, Ashley Frankfurth, CSW, and Rikki Johnson, CSW and in Madison, Alicia Gamache, LPC.

EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a breakthrough therapy with special capacity to overcome the often devastating effects of psychological trauma.

Initially, EMDR was utilized and studied as a therapy for PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) which was in itself a relatively new diagnosis for an age-old human affliction. More than 20 controlled clinical trials of EMDR therapy have now been completed and reported which attest to EMDR’s efficacy. EMDR has demonstrated its usefulness across all ages, genders, and cultures for post-traumatic stress disorders. Tens of thousands of clinicians have been trained in EMDR therapy and have applied the defining protocols of this psychotherapy to many other conditions, including: Personality disorders, eating disorders, panic attacks, performance anxiety, complicated grief, stress reduction, dissociative disorders, disturbing memories, addictions, phobias, pain disorders, sexual and/or physical abuse and body dysmorphic conditions.

EMDR therapy is a cost-effective, non-invasive, evidence-based method of psychotherapy that facilitates adaptive information processing. EMDR therapy is an eight-phase treatment which comprehensively identifies and addresses experiences that have overwhelmed the brain’s natural resilience or coping capacity, and have thereby generated traumatic symptoms and/or harmful coping strategies. Through EMDR therapy, patients are able to reprocess traumatic information until it is no longer psychologically disruptive.

During this procedure, patients tend to “process” the memory in a way that leads to a peaceful resolution. This often results in increased insight regarding both previously disturbing events and long held negative thoughts about the self. For example, an assault victim may come to realize that he was not to blame for what happened, that the event is really over, and, as a result he can regain a general sense of safety in his world.

Since the development of EMDR therapy, many adaptations of the therapy have been established to address particular types of psychological problems, but all specialized applications rest on EMDR’s basic protocols and concept of adaptive information processing.

For more information or to make an appointment, please contact one of the local offices.  In Huron call 605-352-8596 or Madison call 605-256-9656.