EMDR
The trauma.
Every single person on this Earth has experienced some kind of trauma. When overwhelming, scary, or incredibly stressful events occur in your life, your brain cannot always process it smoothly like any ordinary event. The event becomes a stuck memory where you have triggers such as uncomfortable body sensations, disturbing mental images, intense uncontrollable emotions, or negative beliefs about yourself or the world. Your whole mood and attitude towards life is affected by the trauma you’ve suffered.
The healing.
EMDR can help you process the stuck memories to smooth them out and reduce or eliminate all of the yucky stuff attached to them. We use bilateral stimulation to connect the brain and the body. EMDR can be intense - as we are essentially re-wiring the brain and making the missing puzzle pieces fit - yet it’s so worthwhile for your healing.
The process.
1) History & Treatment Planning: I’ll learn more about you and your story while making note of the trauma you’ve experienced.
2) Preparation: We’ll talk about how EMDR can be helpful to you. You’ll learn relaxation & coping strategies to offer short term relief.
3) Assessment: We’ll activate the target memory and identify pertinent related beliefs, images, emotions, and body sensations.
4) Desensitization: You’ll use BLS (tapping or buzzies) to reprocess the trauma and reduce the disturbance as new thoughts, images, emotions, and body sensations emerge.
5) Installation: You will strengthen a positive belief about the memory until it feels true.
6) Body Scan: You’ll hold onto the positive belief and scan your body for any lingering disturbing body sensations.
7) Closure: We’ll stop BLS and orient you back to the present with a coping strategy you learned previously so you’re ready to go back into your world.
8) Re-evaluation: To start every session, we’ll process anything new that has come up and collaboratively decide where to go next.
Learn more.
EMDR is a research based therapy and in my opinion, the best form of treatment for trauma. Check out more about this weird, cool, healing modality.
