EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

Trauma can create a continuous loop of negativity.

“I am powerless. I am unsafe. I’m worthless. I can’t trust anybody. I can’t trust myself. I should have known better. I should have done more. I’m not enough. I’m too much.”

Trauma is a bundle of thoughts, emotions, bodily feelings, and memories.

We often think of trauma in terms of war, injury, or sexual and physical abuse, but having a parent who was emotionally immature or neglectful is also trauma. Bullying is trauma. Trauma comes in many forms, and we are all impacted by it somehow.

All the different aspects of trauma become glued together by negative self-talk. These negative self-statements are bound to the trauma and live deep in the nervous system. We can’t talk our way out of them or through them.

EMDR helps you reprocess those memories.

EMDR allows you to weaken the memories, feelings, and emotions attached to trauma.

Eventually, the untrue negative cognitions can no longer hold, and new, positive self-talk emerges.

“I am in control of my life. I am safe now. I have worth. I can choose who to trust. I can trust myself. I can’t blame myself for what happened. I did my best. I don’t need to compare myself to anyone else.”

When the old negative self-talk is no longer running the show, we can move into the life we deserve.

Top-Down vs Bottom-Up – which is most effective?

Many forms of therapy (like Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy – CBT) utilize a top-down approach to target thoughts. The idea behind CBT is that if we can change our thoughts, we can change how we feel and act. There is a place for this type of therapy, but it generally provides incremental change.

In my therapy career, I have been privileged to see consistent, huge, transformational change in people in very short periods (as little as one session).

I have never seen this type of change in CBT, but I see it every single week in the experiential therapy I utilize.

What is Experiential Therapy?

Experiential therapy allows clients to go beyond the ordinary thinking part of their minds and access other parts of their brain, body, nervous system, and emotional self.

The experiential therapies I utilize (EMDR, Internal Family Systems – IFS, Accelerated Resolution Therapy – ART, sand tray) all elicit a trance that allows the client to move safely through habitual protective patterns into the stuff underneath – this is the stuff that needs attention!

When we work on this stuff, there’s a tremendous release, and the client’s whole system changes. Protecting this deep, sometimes painful ‘stuff’ is no longer necessary, so more energy is released, and a tremendous weight becomes lifted.

Clients often feel this shift physically and are usually exhausted for a day or two after this work.

EMDR works!

EMDR is the primary modality I use to process the deep material clients need to move through.

I started using EMDR in 2019 when I was working with the Florida SATP (Sexual Abuse Treatment Program). Florida allowed two types of therapy to help these clients, who were all children who had experienced recent sexual abuse.

I started utilizing Trauma-Focused CBT with the clients and had some success. But when I got trained in EMDR and added EMDR along with the CBT work, the results were phenomenal. Some of the most traumatized children I had ever seen finished therapy without diagnosable PTSD.

Seeing the response from these children was hugely important to me. I cared deeply about these kids and found something that worked and improved their lives.

EMDR therapy is evolving in exciting ways!

In the therapy world, the term ‘evidence-based’ often comes up. Over the years, I’ve realized that one can manipulate research to make mediocre types of therapy look good. I only utilize evidence-based therapies in my practice, but I am naturally a bit skeptical. I don’t unquestioningly accept and follow research. I do what works!

EMDR 2.0 – EMDR is expanding and changing, and I’m here for it! For EMDR to become an ‘evidence-based therapy,’ it had to be manualized to be consistently taught to everyone. This manualized ‘basic protocol’ is very effective but doesn’t resonate with every client.

Over the years, many brilliant therapists have advanced the possibilities in EMDR and other experiential therapies by utilizing exciting breakthroughs in neuroscience. I often use IFS alongside EMDR. Within my EMDR work, I also draw heavily from memory reconsolidation research, brainspotting, flash techniques, sand tray, art therapy, and cutting-edge biofeedback techniques such as Heart Math.

I’m a lifelong learner, and I’m curious about my work. My clients benefit because I stay abreast of new approaches that work.

I can talk about this work forever, but I’ll stop here. If you want to know more, give me a call at (860) 322-2740 today and schedule your free consultation..