EMDR Therapy
How EMDR helps.
Eye Movement Desensitization Movement Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy involves the use of eye movements (or tapping) to stimulate your brain’s natural healing system, helping you to adopt more constructive ways of viewing yourself and the world around you. EMDR is recognized as an “A” level of treatment for trauma (World Health Organization), and it is recognized by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence as one of two empirically supported treatments of choice for adult PTSD.
Unlike other approaches, EMDR is not a relaxation exercise. Nor is it an attempt to overpower your negative experience with cognitive challenges (altering the way you think). Instead, the purpose of EMDR is for the reprocessing (the use of rapid eye movements) to bring you to a point where you can sit with these experiences, so that you are no longer distressed by them. By the end of the reprocessing, you will feel, think, and believe in your body, that the once distressing experiences are in the past, and not in your present.
EMDR is an effective form of therapy that can help you to resolve the following issues:
- Old issues from your past that leave you feeling stuck.
- Unhelpful beliefs you hold about yourself or others (sense of defectiveness, fear about safety, and/or lack of control).
- Recent or historic traumas and losses
Riding on a train metaphor.
The metaphor commonly used to describe EMDR processing is the metaphor of riding on a train. EMDR utilizes a dual awareness: the client is aware they are safe and present here and now, while at the same time able to “watch” the images, sensations, and feelings associated with a memory pass by much as the scenery passes by for a passenger on a train.
During a session, you will be guided to hold an image of a memory in mind. Through discussions, you may have gained some insight about what negative belief the memory is linked to, and will discuss what you would prefer to believe about yourself. In addition, I will ask you about what sensations they notice in their body as they hold the image in mind.
As you notice what comes up for you, I will guide the processing using bilateral stimulation (guided eye movements) to process the information by stimulating one side of your brain followed by the other. Similar to riding on a train, the sights, sounds, feelings, thoughts, images and body sensations related to the memory pass by like the scenery outside a train window.
We will work together to reprocess the memory, often resulting in decreased disturbance for you related to the memory as well as a new, more adaptive beliefs about yourself and the meaning of the experience.
One of the really cool things is that our memories are stored in networks. As a result, work related to reprocessing a particular memory and associated negative belief can generalize to other memories connected to the initial memory processed. This can decrease distress around related memories.
How can you recognize that you might need EMDR?
- You have been feeling stressed, anxious, or burned out.
- You feel unloveable and a need to please others.
- You are easily startled, nervous, or jumpy.
- Your feel detached, heavy, or lethargic.
- You have become fixated on certain thoughts, or you find yourself obsessing over certain things.
- You find it hard to trust people and feel safe.
EMDR Teletherapy is open to all clients in Florida and Virginia.
Please fill out my contact form or call me at (571) 882-2925 for a free phone consultation to discuss how EMDR therapy will help you to provide healing to your past and increase your self-esteem and resilience. EMDR therapy is most effective when conducted weekly versus biweekly.