McLean County invested about 150,000 dollars on training from the shared sales tax fund to which Bloomington and Normal contribute, providing a big chunk of the county’s counselors and social workers with training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR—a rising therapy model that can help people overcome anxiety, depression, and PTSD.
When a distressing memory is activated, bilateral stimulation through eye movement back and forth, tapping, or other methods taxes the working memory in a way that reduces the intensity and vividness of the memory, according to Kelly Smyth-Dent, founder and CEO of Scaling Up LLC, the training firm the county used. The brain and nervous system can only handle so much taxation at one time, similar to a computer with too many open tabs eventually closing some out.
Francine Shapiro created EMDR in the 1980s after noticing that eye movements helped reduce her distress while walking in a park during medical trauma. Most research has been done on PTSD involving intense and vivid trauma, though newer work shows EMDR also works on any distressing memory that activates someone’s nervous system. Some clients can have significant decreases in symptoms related to anxiety, depression, and PTSD. The 100-seat training marks a big jump for the community—more than a quarter of the 379 clinical social workers and clinical professional counselors licensed in McLean County.
“It should have a pretty significant impact. Trauma is a core part of many different mental illnesses, and McLean County has a wide variety of residents with a variety of experiences,” said Marita Landreth, McLean County’s director of behavioral health coordination. The training filled completely in less than a week, and based on positive reception and continued demand, the county plans to offer similar training again next year.
This article is an AI-assisted summary. All facts and figures are drawn from the original report: https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-11-24/mclean-county-invests-in-eye-movement-and-memory-therapy-training-for-counselors-and-social-workers