Bartow, FL – The Iron Horse Family Foundation in its effort to promote the interests of facilitating, empowering and supporting endeavors that help children lead healthier lives is funding Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) training for Peace River Center’s Behavioral Health staff. EMDR is an evidence-based practice, a treatment that has been researched academically or scientifically, been proven effective, and has been replicated by multiple investigations or studies.
Research studies on EMDR therapy have proven the mind can resolve issues stemming from psychological trauma, much like the body recovers from physical trauma. The result of EMDR therapy for most people leads to a large decrease in symptoms and in a shorter time span. EMDR therapy is recommended by the American Psychiatric Association, the World Health Organization, The International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, and the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. EMDR training includes 48 hours of instruction and 20 hours of consultation for qualified social workers and mental health professionals.
“When a child is in distress, you want to provide help as quickly as possible. EMDR is often an excellent option as you can see results—less reaction to environmental triggers, the ability to open up and progress more in talk therapy, and more—in a much shorter period of time than with traditional outpatient talk therapy,” said Donna Rininger, LMHC, MCAP, Director of Specialty Services at Peace River Center. Currently the organization has less than 15 trained EMDR therapists. This funding will help train more than 30 behavioral health professionals at Peace River Center.
“This training was made possible thanks to the generosity of The Iron Horse Family Foundation will help children with everything from overcoming fear of public speaking to healing from unimaginable trauma including physical and sexual abuse. We are so thankful The Foundation recognizes the benefits of EMDR therapy,” said Candace Barnes, LMHC CBHCMS-AC, Senior Director of Clinical Services at Peace River Center.
For more information on the benefits of EMDR or to set-up an appointment, please call (863) 519-0575 ext. 7298.
About Peace River Center
Peace River Center is a licensed and accredited, non-profit provider of mental health, substance use and integrated medical services serving Polk, Highlands and Hardee counties. Peace River Center provides options for people struggling with mental health and addiction, for children and adults coping with the trauma of abuse and violence, crisis intervention for people in acute need, and housing and community support and integration for people affected by domestic violence or whose recovery requires more support and time. Peace River Center offers inpatient, outpatient, home-, school- and community-based services, telehealth and mobile programs to individuals, groups and families. Peace River Center’s dedicated and compassionate staff of more than 400 operate 36 programs out of 27 locations and provide 24/7 emergency psychiatric response services to the community through the mobile psychiatric Crisis Response Team. In FY2018, Peace River Center had contact with and provided services to more than 23,000 children, adolescents, adults and seniors. For more information visit www.peacerivercenter.org.