Can EMDR Help With Anxiety?
Can EMDR Help With Anxiety?
If you struggle with anxiety, you're not alone—and you may be wondering if EMDR therapy could help. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is best known for treating trauma and PTSD, but more and more people are turning to it to address anxiety as well.
The answer is: yes, EMDR can be very effective for anxiety—especially when anxiety is rooted in past experiences, unprocessed memories, or limiting beliefs.
Understanding Anxiety Disorders
Anxiety can show up in many forms. While occasional worry or stress is part of life, anxiety disorders are more intense, persistent, and disruptive. Let’s take a look at some of the most common types:
1. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
Characterized by excessive worry about everyday things—health, work, relationships—even when there’s no clear reason to worry. Symptoms often include:
Restlessness or feeling “on edge”
Difficulty concentrating
Muscle tension
Trouble sleeping
Persistent sense of dread or impending doom
2. Panic Disorder
Involves sudden, repeated panic attacks—intense surges of fear that come out of the blue. Panic attacks may include:
Racing heart or chest pain
Shortness of breath
Dizziness
Sweating or shaking
Fear of losing control or dying
After a panic attack, it’s common to fear when the next one will occur, which can create a cycle of anxiety.
3. Social Anxiety Disorder
This type involves an intense fear of being judged, embarrassed, or rejected in social situations. Symptoms include:
Avoiding social events or speaking in public
Blushing, sweating, or nausea in social settings
Self-critical thoughts before, during, or after interactions
4. Specific Phobias
Irrational and overwhelming fear of particular objects or situations, such as flying, heights, needles, or animals. The fear response is out of proportion to the actual threat.
5. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) (now in its own category but often related)
OCD involves unwanted, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors or mental rituals (compulsions) aimed at reducing anxiety.
How EMDR Helps with Anxiety
EMDR therapy works by helping your brain reprocess unhelpful or distressing experiences so they no longer feel emotionally activating in the present. Here’s how it supports healing from anxiety:
1. Identifies the Root Cause
Anxiety can sometimes stem from (or worsen from) life experiences—moments when you felt unsafe, rejected, powerless, or overwhelmed. EMDR helps you identify the origin of your current distress, even if you’re not consciously aware of it.
2. Resolves Disturbing Memories
Using bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements, taps, or tones), EMDR helps your brain process and “digest” past experiences that are still stuck and contributing to anxiety. Once processed, those memories no longer fuel current anxiety.
3. Updates Core Beliefs
Anxiety is often tied to negative beliefs like “I’m not safe,” “I’m going to fail,” or “I can’t handle this.” EMDR replaces these beliefs with more adaptive ones like “I am safe now” or “I can cope with this.”
4. Calms the Nervous System
Many people with anxiety have a hyperactive stress response. EMDR helps the nervous system shift out of fight-or-flight mode by reducing the emotional charge of triggers.
EMDR for Different Types of Anxiety
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): EMDR targets the underlying life experiences and beliefs that contribute to chronic worry, helping reduce the sense of internal threat.
Panic Disorder: EMDR helps desensitize the memory of past panic attacks, physical triggers, and reduces fear of future ones.
Social Anxiety: By reprocessing memories of past social rejection or shame, EMDR reduces anticipatory anxiety and builds self-confidence.
Phobias: EMDR helps resolve any experiences that created the phobia, so the fear no longer dominates.
OCD: While more complex, EMDR can be combined with other approaches (such as Exposure and Response Prevention) to address any trauma that feeds into obsessions.
Is EMDR Right for You?
If anxiety is interfering with your life—your work, relationships, sleep, or peace of mind—EMDR may offer a path to healing. It’s especially helpful when:
Talk therapy hasn’t resolved the underlying anxiety
Anxiety is tied to past events or worsened as a result of them
You feel stuck in fear-based thoughts or patterns
EMDR is a structured, time-limited, and research-supported approach that goes beyond coping skills—it helps you heal memories that keep your nervous system stuck in fight or flight mode.
Ready to Explore EMDR Therapy?
I offer online EMDR therapy to clients in Arizona, Washington, Oregon, and Massachusetts. If you’re struggling with anxiety and want to explore EMDR as a treatment option, reach out for a free consultation to see if we’re a good fit.
