Healing Trauma through EMDR Therapy
As An EMDR trained therapist I use this incredible and groundbreaking therapy protocol to help my clients get past their trauma and get on with life.
EMDR is an amazing therapy that can provide relief surprisingly quickly to many of these issues. For a long time people have held the belief that trauma is something that we have to suffer through or needs to take a long time to experience relief from. EMDR is a way to specifically identify and target these events and allow you to move through them. Trauma is an unprocessed memory that gets stuck in our mind and body. Most memories we have can be recalled without having feelings or experiences of being in that moment, however with trauma we experience the memory as if it was happening to us at the very moment and the fear and pain is very real even though we may know it’s not based on what is happening in the present.
Here’s a brief overview of how it works:
Trauma is experienced bi-laterally (across both hemispheres in the brain), meaning you don’t just have the memory, but the experience and feeling of the memory as well.
EMDR “dislodges” the trauma from where it was stuck in the brain so it can be felt, processed, and transformed into a processed memory that no longer has the same effect or intensity.
Because the bi-lateral stimulation directly targets and activates trauma quickly, EMDR allows people move quickly through a traumatic event in as short as 2 or 3 sessions.
Think of a splinter of wood that gets stuck in your finger. If you remove or “dislodge” the splinter your finger will heal on it’s own. EMDR work to remove that trauma to a place where it can be processed into a memory and the brain, like your finger will heal on it’s own. It can be intense at times but a good clinician will take good care to make sure you are safe and able to manage whatever may come up along the way so you can get to relief.
The EMDR institute provides a more in-depth explanation of the treatment process:
http://www.emdr.com/what-is-emdr/
Some FAQs on the process can be found here as well:
http://www.emdria.org/?page=2
