Trauma Therapist - emdr therapy - What is it?

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EMDR stands for “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.” That’s a mouth full, right? Basically, EMDR is an evidence-based approach used to treat trauma. It supports a theory called Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) which is a fancy-schmancy way of saying that your brain has a natural ability to want to heal.

When trauma happens, our nervous systems, reactions, thoughts, emotional states, and belief systems are affected. As you attempt to make sense of a traumatic event, you may notice certain patterns emerging within your belief systems: “I am not good enough. I am not worthy enough. Something is wrong with me. Others cannot be trusted. Relationships are not safe. The world is dangerous.” These cognitions, born of trauma, have a profound, negative impact on us. They create barriers for intimacy, healing, and growth. 

You may also notice overtime that relationships feel hard, your value system feels inauthentic, or you no longer feel like yourself. You may experience profound, crushing depression or debilitating anxiety. Perhaps you struggle with rumination, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, dissociation or feeling numb, or feeling as though the traumatic event that already happened is still happening. 

In our therapy together, we can explore your belief systems as well as trauma-related survival symptoms, how they came to be, as well as any additional conditioning and heal it from the root. We will focus on creating regulation within your nervous system, integrating traumatic events, reprocessing emotions while supporting adaptive beliefs. This is neurogenesis; we are strengthening your brain’s natural ability to repattern and heal! 

Dissociation in therapy is often common when embarking on trauma work. This is your nervous system brilliantly protecting you. Together, we will practice working with the dissociation, creating space for it, and witnessing it shift over time, when it is ready. 

In 1987, Francine Shapiro, the founder of EMDR, came across a curious observation. She noticed that as she was walking in the park, she began recalling distressing memories. As she did so, she developed an awareness that her eyes were rapidly moving back and forth, ever so slightly. She was inquisitive about this physiological response and noticed that as she reflected on her traumatic memories, her emotions decreased in disturbance level. 

Francine became curious about the connection between her eye movements (bilateral stimulation) and how they seemed to help re-process and re-integrate her distressing memories.

EMDR serves as a somatic modality focused on achieving internal homeostasis via nervous system regulation and re-processing through traumatic events by way of new insights and adaptive cognitions.  

EMDR utilizes your own brain’s natural insights to reframe your maladaptive belief systems into more adaptive, supportive ways of thinking, being, and integrating. As your therapist, I apply bilateral stimulation (BLS) via various methods (eye movements or tapping) in order to encourage problem solving within your own brain and its cognitions.

Through bilateral stimulation of the body, we encourage the right hemisphere of the brain to communicate with the left hemisphere of the brain. This is essential for problem solving. In fact, when we talk about our trauma, we may experience temporary relief, but we do not heal or reprocess our trauma. This is because when we are merely discussing traumatic events, we are only utilizing one side of the brain (left); however, during EMDR and via BLS, we are effectively encouraging communication from both hemispheres. 

When communication between hemispheres occurs, our nervous systems slowly learn to integrate memories that were previously fragmented or dissociated from because they were too overwhelming at the time. The therapeutic dynamic helps serve as a safety mechanism here; you are free to finally feel what couldn't be felt all along. This is the crux of reprocessing and integrating traumatic events so your system can finally be whole - the way it was meant to be. I am honored to be your witness.

EMDR therapy often happens in phases: 

In the first phase, we will focus on resourcing your nervous system. During this time, I will guide you through EMDR protocol where we will focus on establishing, building, tools of curiosity and assessing symptoms. Overtime, our therapeutic dynamic will begin to serve as a microcosm for your other relationships.

Additionally, I will lead you through exercises where we will practice resourcing your nervous system. I will provide psychoeducation on the neurobiology of trauma, EMDR, and how we can utilize nervous system regulation techniques to support safety in your body and mind. 

In the next consecutive sessions, we will discuss your trauma history. This is where we will spend time exploring your belief systems, the specific event or memory you wish you process, any correlating patterns, and problematic coping patterns.

Eventually, we will dedicate entire sessions to the re-processing portion of EMDR which involves re-processing the traumatic events/memories and correlating beliefs.

Overtime, we will explore and strengthen your adaptive belief system so you can "re-wire" the conditioning that occurred in your life as a result of the trauma. 

You can read more about EMDR here: https://www.emdr.com/