EMDR Therapy
I use an advanced, integrative approach to EMDR that extends and enhances its power to produce deep and lasting healing.
What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is an evidence-based therapy that was created to help people process and recover from trauma, difficult experiences, and troubling emotional states. EMDR Therapy is guided by the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) Model, a theory about how the brain stores memories. This theory explains that the brain stores normal and traumatic or overwhelming memories differently.
During ordinary events, the brain stores memories smoothly, including networking them, so that they link with other things you remember. In the case of difficult or overwhelming cxperiences, that networking is disrupted. Instead, a disconnect develops between what you’ve experienced and what your brain stores as the story or meaning of what happened.
Traumatic and overwhelming memories become stuck in a format that doesn’t allow healthy processing and healing. An unprocessed painful experience is much like a wound that hasn’t been allowed to heal.
How does EMDR work?
EMDR works by making use of bilateral brain stimulation (BLS) to access the body’s natural ability to heal from trauma and other overwhelming experiences. I will guide you to activate the right and left hemispheres of your brain using one of several methods, such as moving your eyes back and forth, listening to sounds that switch from one ear to the other, alternating tapping, or a combination of these methods. By activating both sides of the brain in this way, we can engage the body’s natural healing ability - an innate capacity already within you - to help you process unresolved painful memories and situations.
When a memory or situation is processed adaptively, you’ll be able to remember it or think about it, but you’ll no longer experience the intense negative emotions around it. Instead, you’ll feel calm and at peace.
The effectiveness of EMDR is supported by over 40 years of scientific study, and is recognized as gold-standard treatment for trauma endorsed by The World Health Organization, The American Psychiatric Association, The U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and more.
What happens in EMDR therapy?
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EMDR consists of a number of different phases. In the beginning, we’ll get to know each other. I’ll ask you about you, your life, your significant relationships, and what matters to you most. We’ll discuss what you hope to get out of therapy, and we’ll go over what painful experience or experiences you want to focus on.
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Next, we’ll spend time in preparation. We’ll go through different approaches to help you learn ways to feel calm when difficult emotion shows up. I will teach you a variety of techniques, including deep breathing, guided imagery, grounding, and more, and you’ll try them out to see which ones you like best. We’ll practice different methods of bilateral stimulation, so you can settle on what feels best for you to use. I’ll give you tools and resources that will help you process your painful memory adaptively. I’ll guide you through various activities designed to help you feel supported, protected, and assured. We may focus on a time in your life when things were going well. We may also envision a future where your life is as you want it to be. We may imagine all of your support people showing up to help you along the way. The purpose of this is to fill you with good feelings, memories, and images to access during the next phases of desensitization and reprocessing. The preparation phase is very important to the entire process. We are teaching your system what to do when we gently and carefully begin to process painful memories from the past. We do this to get you ready to go, and so the experience can be helpful and healing. In many cases, this is where significant integrative work with other modalities (particularly IFS and somatic work) get woven in, so it can be a point in treatment of profound growth and change.
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Next, we’ll target the themes and painful memories we’ll be processing. I’ll guide you in identifying images, feelings, and body sensations associated with the memories. I’ll also help you notice negative beliefs about how the trauma made you feel, as well as positive beliefs that you would like to believe about yourself instead going forward.
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At this point, I’ll ask you to tune your attention to the traumatic memory we’ve selected, and we’ll begin to apply bilateral stimulation. What will be asked of you here is simply to notice what comes up. You don’t have to try to make anything happen here, just stay open and present, noticing whatever surfaces in your awareness. As you engage in bilateral stimulation, various experiences may occur. You might notice shifts in emotions, thoughts, or physical sensations related to the traumatic memory. You might notice the presence of an urge. And I will be here with you to help if you start to feel stressed or uncomfortable. We can keep the process gentle, and proceed at a pace that feels right for you. This process will allow desensitization to occur, leading the memory to become less emotionally charged. Some people report feeling a sense of detachment or distance from the memory at this point. Others describe the experience becoming less vivid. At this stage, reprocessing can begin, in which the memory can start to be looked at in a new, healthy way, and assimilated into a new adaptive point of view. At this point, I will guide you as new, healing perspectives, insights, and meaning emerge for you. I’ll guide you to connect the positive belief you want to build in as we process the memory at this stage, too, and we’ll be checking in to see how you’re feeling in your body to release any residual trauma.
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This is the final stage. At this point, we’ll take stock on your experience, reflect on the changes that have occurred for you, and celebrate your growth and healing. We’ll notice how things have shifted for you, and determine whether you feel our work together is complete or whether there’s more you’d like to do.
Common questions about EMDR therapy
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A part of the EMDR process is allowing yourself to feel a bit of the painful emotions associated with a traumatic experience. But before we get there, we will prepare you and practice emotional regulation and self-care. If at any point you find yourself too stressed or overwhelmed, we will take a break, apply some calming techniques together, or shift your attention to something else. We will take as much time as you need so you feel gentleness as we process sensitive or tender topics.
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It’s entirely up to you. You will be able to talk about it as little or as much as you feel comfortable. EMDR will be just as effective whether or not you want to talk about every detail. For EMDR to work, you do not need to talk about or relive every detail of the worst parts of your life if you don’t want to.
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When we start processing, your aim will be to keep one foot in the present while you put one foot in the past. You’ll participate in the bilateral stimulation, and you will need to just simply notice the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations that come up. I’ll be asking you to let me know what you’re experiencing. In doing so, we’ll be facilitating and supporting your brain and your body’s natural ability to heal.