“Once you start working in trauma, you see it everywhere,” says Tracey Musarra Marchese, social work professor of practice in Syracuse University’s Falk College and a practitioner in the community working with individuals and families. “Because of the amount of trauma out there, we need to have more people trained in treating it.”
And Marchese is doing just that.
Marchese, who also holds a clinical faculty appointment in the Department of Psychiatry at Upstate Medical University, provides EMDR Therapy basic training for psychiatry residents and community practitioners. Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, or EMDR Therapy, helps people of all ages relieve many types of psychological distress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other psychiatric disorders, mental health problems, and somatic symptoms. EMDR was originally studied on Vietnam veterans with PTSD and continues to be used to treat veterans with PTSD.
“Because EMDR is an integrative therapy, it appeals to many clinicians who are trained in other types of therapies,” says Marchese. “Additionally, it offers students and clinicians the opportunity to develop more advanced skills that are specific to treating trauma.”
EMDR targets past experience, current triggers, and future potential challenges. This therapy helps clients decrease or eliminate the distress from a disturbing memory while improving the client’s view of the self and creating coping mechanisms to resolve present and future anticipated triggers. EMDR is designated as an effective treatment by the American Psychiatric Association, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Department of Health and Human Services, the World Health Organization, and many other international health agencies.
Marchese was exposed to EMDR Therapy early during her career working as a psychotherapist/clinical social worker helping clients with depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
She is an EMDR International certified therapist and an EMDRIA-approved consultant, which means she has completed EMDR training, engaged in more than 300 EMDR clinical sessions and 20 hours of consultation with an EMDRIA-approved consultant, and attended numerous continuing education workshops on advanced applications of EMDR Therapy. She recently became an EMDRIA-approved EMDR Basic Trainer, a role held by only approximately 100 clinicians worldwide.
“It is so rewarding to help people relieve emotional pain. I love to see people transform their lives because they transform the way they think and feel, thanks to EMDR.”