Anxiety can hinder so much of everyday life, but there are many helpful and safe ways to cope. For Miley Cyrus, she credits a specific type of therapy that helped her with stage fright and what she says also saved her life: EMDR.

“It’s so weird because it’s like watching a movie in your mind, but it’s different than dreaming. You’re kind of more in yourself, but still in another place of consciousness that’s kind of hard to describe unless you’ve been in that hypnotic state,” the 32-year-old singer recently said in an interview with The New York Times.

EMDR, more formally known as Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a psychotherapy technique that treats trauma-related stress and other mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, panic, grief, loss, and substance disorders. Developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro, PhD, in 1987, it has since been used to help adults (and even children).

Cyrus goes on to explain in the interview that her therapist encouraged her to explore different points in her life that matched the anxiety she feels when she would go sing on stage. After finding herself on a mountaintop in a place where she experienced a lot of trauma, she was surrounded by nature and people—her grandma, her mom, her current boyfriend, her as a little child, and even her dog—who have brought her peace and love. When they all grabbed her hand to play Ring Around the Rosie, she came out of that vision feeling renewed. “I’ve never had stage fright again,” she says.

How does it work?

EMDR involves reprocessing traumatic memories or stressful events using bilateral stimulation. Elizabeth Ochoa, PhD, chief psychologist at Mount Sinai-Behavioral Health Center, explains that you’ll be asked to recall an emotion, an image, or words that are linked to that traumatic event while a form of bilateral stimulation is being administered by a clinician. The stimulation can include rapid eye movements, during which a person tracks the movements of a finger, ball, or some sort of stimulus with their eyes, tapping, or auditory cues. The goal, Ochoa says, is to reduce distress related to that painful memory.

Who is it for?

Ochao says that EMDR is perfect for those who are experiencing depression, anxiety, panic, or other emotional distress whenever a traumatic memory is triggered. If this is something that happens frequently enough over a long period of time and it starts to hinder how you live out your day to day life, she says this might be a treatment to consider.

The benefits of EMDR

Studies show that those who use EMDR can reap the same benefits as those who use years of psychotherapy, just in a shorter amount of time. The idea is that EMDR can help the mind recover from psychological trauma by removing mental blocks that stop the healing, similar to how the body recovers from physical trauma. “The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes,” writes the EMDR Institute on its site. “Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes.”

The downsides of EMDR

EMDR can be quite triggering at first. Ochao says that uncomfortable feelings or distressing thoughts, feelings, and even dreams will emerge as you’re reprocessing these traumatic events. Those who are not ready to face those painful feelings may want to look for a gentler treatment option.

EMDR is not for those who have personality disorders, diagnosed mental illnesses, or severe psychiatric disorders. She adds that this treatment is not suitable for ongoing trauma that is currently happening in your present life. “In a general sense, for EMDR to be safely utilized, the patient needs to have sufficient emotional coping skills, distress tolerance, and stability to manage the emotional distress that will emerge during treatment safely,” she says.

What to Expect During a Session

There are eight phases in a single EMDR session. Ochao explains that the initial phase will focus on identifying the memory that is causing all the trauma. The following phase will try to desensitize that memory, using the same bilateral stimulation techniques. Once that memory is neutralized, she says the focus will shift to instilling positive beliefs. The EMDR Institute breaks it down even further like this: