Healing Trauma through EMDR
This is about trauma – “big” or “small.”
“Big Traumas” include prior abuse, including physical, sexual, emotional. They also include traumatic events soldiers, police officers, or any first responders have endured.
Often, clients have put that safely away, but the trauma has never really left them. It rears its head in other ways like failed relationships, ineffective communication skills, depression, nightmares, guilty thoughts, overcompensating, or feelings that they are not good enough.
It may also be why a child or teen has trouble in school, irritability, anxiety, anger, or lack of focus. The effects of trauma can look like other mental health disorders. They also imprint on our brains as negative beliefs in ourselves.
If someone was abused, they might internalize that they are inferior because they did nothing about it. Through processing, we want to get to where they accept they did the best they could have given the situation.
People have “little traumas” in their lives that, over time, have similar effects on them.
These are instances such as when a child was embarrassed or shamed by peers or had been teased by a loved one repeatedly over the years, even if they meant no harm.
They can also include people making comments about another person’s looks or insecurities.
Sometimes even something that seems very normal to most people, like moving when you are in the middle of junior high school, can traumatize others. We can also internalize these types of smaller traumas, making us feel unworthy, not valued, guilty, or many other types of negative beliefs about ourselves.
The positive outcome of processing would be for those beliefs to have been changed and loosen the emotional connection to those memories.
Whatever the situation, trauma happens when we feel as though our world falls apart…
And “things have never been the same since.”
Sometimes you feel sad, and you don’t know why…
Sometimes you are walking through your life emotionally void…
Or maybe life continually has its challenges, and you can’t seem to figure out why…
Many times, this can be from past trauma. Our human brains are so complicated, and we often are not conscious of what is going on with ourselves.
I have found that clients with anxiety, depression, irritability, or ongoing anger… once we start peeling back the layers… have had some trauma that continues to affect them.
EMDR is a wonderful therapy for processing trauma.
With Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), you don’t have to necessarily re-live the trauma… nor do you even have to talk about it!
As the name suggests, EMDR uses eye movements to reprocess trauma and memories. Like any therapy in my office, we begin by forging a therapeutic relationship.
EMDR, an acronym for Eye Movement Desensitization + Reprocessing, begins with pre-work called resourcing, including breathing exercises and various exercises to calm the client, using imagery and stress reduction techniques. The client can use these during and between sessions if disturbing memories or thoughts occur out of session.
The client and therapist target past events and the client’s negative beliefs about themselves because of that event.
During EMDR therapy, the client attends to emotionally disturbing material in brief doses while focusing on lateral eye movements directed by the therapist, moving a hand back and forth horizontally while seated across from the client. This is the most common practice, but other stimuli, including bi-lateral hand-tapping, tappers, and audio stimulation, may be used.
After successful treatment with EMDR, the client’s emotional distress is relieved, negative beliefs are reformulated, and a reduction of the client’s physiological arousal when accessing that memory.
There are several phases involved in this process. The result is that traumatic memories are “cleared out” – that is, they no longer have an emotional effect on you anymore. You will still have the memories, but the long-lasting negative emotional effects of past events will no longer hold you back.
Taking a big step toward living a life of freedom…
Significant life events such as a sexual assault may leave a person feeling like it was their fault, even though it wasn’t. Negative beliefs like that can be carried around for years without resolution. EMDR helps to rid you of those negative beliefs and the physiological distress related to that memory. You can move on with a sense of freedom.
Results can be achieved in a handful of sessions, depending on the issues. It is very effective.
Many people describe feeling lighter, more clear-headed, or like a weight lifts off them.
Do you want to break out of your past?
That sense of freedom is waiting for you.
Is there something from your past holding you back from grabbing it? You are ready to make a change – please call me to get started:
(941) 404-5922.
I offer a 15-minute consultation. During the consultation, I will briefly ask questions and answer yours as we determine whether we’re a good fit to work together.