EMDR Therapy
(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Joe* feels completely stuck.
He’s been in therapy for years, talking about the same problems over and over. And he remains frustrated because all that talking hasn’t helped.
Joe is beginning to question if there are other options. Seemingly, every day the SAME emotional over-reaction to his wife derails him. He feels attacked and judged when his wife starts sharing her emotions with him.
He knows his reactions are irrational, but her sharing FEELS like a personal attack. It’s too much for him!
Sometimes, even a woman walking by on the sidewalk who doesn’t smile at him sends him into another spiral of shame and anger.
Kelly* is frozen.
Kelly is a young professional who has driven herself to career success. But every time she is in a group of new people, she tenses up and can’t talk herself down.
She is sick of what this overwhelming bodily response is costing her.
Her responses are getting in the way of her career.
Relationships are complex because people think she’s stand-offish and cold. The truth is – she feels terrified. And she can’t control it.
Trauma can have long-term effects.
Formally, trauma is defined by exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence. This exposure can occur through direct experience, witnessing the event, or learning that a loved one suffered such an event.
Beyond the diagnostic parameters of a Criterion A trauma, people can also experience significant adversity or stressors that have lasting physiological and emotional impact. For example, a difficult break up or a lonely experience of pure helplessness can disrupt your nervous system with long term consequences.
Following such events, painful emotional reactions and difficulties with functioning can emerge later in life.
The body can perpetually relive such painful events and the feelings they precipitate unless we can go back inside and reteach the body to be safe through effective therapy.
Deep wounds call for deep treatments.
EMDR is the surgery of psychotherapy. This therapeutic approach is the most cost-effective trauma and other adverse event treatment available, given that effective treatment can consist of less than 40 sessions.
EMDR mimics the brain’s natural ability to process memories, specifically through *fancy phrase* ‘bilateral stimulation.’
Without boring you with all the technical details, the use of bilateral stimulation, most often rapid eye movements, can aid in the healthy “digesting” of painful memories. People often find that when they reprocess those painful memories through EMDR, those memories no longer bother them.
Even more so, they often find their behavior ‘naturally’ changes, and physical symptoms usually disappear. These changes result from resolving the root of the problem that caused those negative responses.
EMDR is different from other therapies, and it’s not only for trauma.
With EMDR, we won’t be talking and exploring as much.
Instead, I will help walk you through identifying specific pictures, thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations related to past events.
EMDR is recognized as a gold-standard, evidenced-based treatment for PTSD. However, emerging evidence suggests EMDR can be highly effective in treating other concerns, including anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, and phobias, particularly when these symptoms are rooted in or exacerbated by unresolved distressing past experiences.
Call now at (940) 263-0816 to speak with me about EMDR and how I can best help you.
*Names changed to protect client confidentiality.