EMDR Specialist

David Salvage, M.D., FAPM

Forensic and Addiction Psychiatrist located in Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY & Financial District, New York, NY

If a past traumatic event still controls your thoughts, feelings, and responses, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) can help free you from this negative thinking, reframing your thoughts for better mental health. David Salvage, MD, FAPM, has completed level III training in EMDR, allowing him to bring this quick and effective therapy to his patients in Park Slope, Brooklyn and Financial District, New York. If you’d like to learn more about EMDR, call or use the online scheduling tool to request an appointment.

EMDR Q &A

What is EMDR?

EMDR is designed to help people overcome the lingering psychological effects of a trauma or negative experience in their past. Whether the event led to clinical post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or not, the emotional consequences of past trauma can cast a wide net on your current state of mind, hampering your ability to truly heal.

The goal of EMDR isn’t to relive the past but address the negative thoughts and feelings that still crop up every time you’re faced with a reminder. This persistent distress prevents your brain from healing because each time you experience a negative thought or emotion about the past event, you reopen the old wound, never allowing it to firmly close.

Using a special desensitization technique that relies on rapid eye movements, Dr. Salvage helps you reframe your thoughts into more positive ones, which frees your brain to heal and put the past in the past.

What conditions does EMDR treat?

While EMDR was originally conceived to treat trauma and PTSD, Dr. Salvage uses it for a number of different, treatment-resistant mental disorders, including:

Depression
Anxiety
Phobias
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Impulse Control Disorders

Dr. Salvage has found great success using EMDR to help his patients who are at a therapeutic impasse break free of their negative thoughts, no matter the underlying condition. The only way to know whether EMDR is right for you is to sit down with Dr. Salvage for a thorough evaluation.

How does EMDR work?

While there are eight phases of EMDR, the main objectives of the psychotherapy are twofold: 1) Desensitize your negative feelings and thoughts, and 2) Reprocess or replace these thoughts with new, more positive ones. For example, if you were in a car accident, rather than grappling with overriding fear and anxiety about vehicular travel, Dr. Salvage helps paint a different picture: One of survival and strength.

To get to this point, Dr. Salvage takes you through the eight phases mentioned above, which are:

History gathering
Preparation
Assessment (identifying the negative thoughts)
Desensitization through eye movements
Installation (of positive thoughts)
Body scan to check progress
Closure (at the end of each session)
Re-evaluation (at the beginning of each session)

EMDR is effective and, perhaps more importantly, fast. If you’ve struggled for years with negative thoughts or emotions tied to a particular event or circumstances, Dr. Salvage helps you break the pattern once and for all.

To explore your options with EMDR, call David Salvage, MD, FAPM, or fill out the online form to request an appointment.

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