EMDR

(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)

Trauma can happen to anyone.

Strong emotions can flood you without warning. Sometimes you feel anxious and uncomfortable in your body, or disconnected from yourself. You might relive aspects of difficult experiences from your past.

The same old thoughts loop in your mind. Logically, you know they aren’t true. But they feel painfully true. You can’t just talk yourself out of them.

You would readily extend compassion towards anyone else in your shoes, yet it’s so hard to have that same compassion for yourself.

You deserve healing, too.

Deeper processing of your traumas can help you to safely unpack painful feelings so that you no longer become hijacked by them.

These thoughts, feelings or memories don’t have to continue sabotaging important aspects of your life.

Some traumas heal quicker than others. While healing is not a linear road, you will feel better over time with the right supports in place. 

What is EMDR?

EMDR is a therapeutic approach that helps you process trauma that’s become stuck in your mind and body. 

Together, we’ll create a safe container to work through these painful feelings until new beliefs develop in place of the negative imprint.

This healing process will help you lead your life from a place of self-compassion and trust your inner wisdom.

What is trauma?

Trauma is our body’s prolonged response to things that were too overwhelming to cope with and for which we didn’t get the support we needed.

Because of this, our bodies didn’t get to complete their natural ways of processing the painful experience. As we reprocess trauma, we work through the stored pain and fear while leaning into new experiences to find safety, love, openness, and curiosity again.

Know that you’re not defective. Everyone is affected by some degree of trauma that we can’t get through on our own. Healing trauma is a layered and cyclical process that takes time and care.

What to expect from EMDR.

EMDR is an 8-phase process adapted to your specific needs as a person. Depending on your unique circumstances, we might circle back to an earlier phase or repeat some phases with different parts of yourself and other memories.The phases include:

• Phase 1 is gathering information. Through a compassionate lens, I’ll talk to you about the challenges you’re facing and the problematic experiences or coping mechanisms showing up in your life now. I’ll gather as much relevant history as you feel comfortable sharing.
• Phase 2 is preparation and skill-building so you can learn healthy ways of responding to your pain. You might already have good skills in place. We just want to make sure you have the support and tools you need to help you through the trauma desensitization and reprocessing phase of EMDR.
• Phase 3 is evaluation. We will identify the trauma to target for reprocessing. Maybe you don’t have a clear idea about a single incident that caused the trauma, or you don’t want to talk about it. That’s totally okay. The somatic and emotional feelings themselves will become our starting point. We’ll distill the core negative belief and then identify the truth about the situation that doesn’t yet feel true.
• Phase 4 is desensitization. This is when we use eye movements (or tapping, or other alternatives) as we focus on the aspect of the memory that we’ve decided to target. These are short sets of eye movements during which I’ll check in with you the whole time to make sure you’re not becoming too overwhelmed. We open things up and let your brain go where it needs to go. This jumpstarts your own natural healing mechanism.
• Phase 5 is installing the positive belief by engaging in eye movements to strengthen it. This helps to consolidate your healing.
• Phase 6 is scanning the body for any residual trauma. We’re just double checking to see if there’s anything left to work on.
• Phase 7 is closure to help you feel calm and grounded again. We do this at the end of any session where we’ve used eye movements.
• Phase 8 is reevaluation. We discuss how resolved you’re feeling with the memory we’ve been targeting and whether there’s something else to target.

This is the basic overview of EMDR!

Your trauma is not your fault. Reach out today to schedule a free consultation.