EMDR Therapy

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, who your people are, 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.

Next, we’ll spend time in preparation. We’ll go through different approaches to help you learn ways to feel calm when difficult emotion rises up. I will show 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. We’ll also load you up with 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 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 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. 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 make you ready to go, so the experience can be helpful and healing. In many cases, this is where much of the integration piece with other modalities (i.e., Brainspotting, Attachment/IFS-informed work, and Somatics takes places, so it can be a point in treatment of profound growth and change.

Now, we’ll hone in on the themes and painful memories we’ll be processing. I’ll guide you in pinpointing images, feelings, and body sensations associated with the memories. I’ll also help you identify negative beliefs about how the trauma made you feel, as well as positive beleifs that you would like to believe about yourself instead going forward.

Processing begins! I’ll ask you to bring to mind the traumatic memory we’ve targeted, and we’ll begin to apply bilateral stimulation. Your job at this point is simply to notice what comes up. You don’t have to “make” anything happen, just stay present and notice what comes into 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. I will be here with you to help if you start to feel stressed or uncomfortable. We can keep the process gentle and will go at a pace that feels right to you. The 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, while others may experience it becoming less vivid. Reprocessing can then 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. vantage point. point of viewed in an adaptive light. At this point, I will guide you as new, healing perspectives, insights, and meaning emerge. I’ll guide you to connect the positive belief you want to build in as we process the memory, too, and we’ll check in once more about how you’re feeling in your body to release any residual trauma. People are often truly surprised at the transformation they experience from this process.

In this final stage, we’ll take a look back, reflect on the changes, and celebrate your growth d 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. It is my honor to support you.