THE PAST DOESN’T HAVE TO RULE YOUR PRESENT
EMDR Therapy in Parker and Across CO
EMDR can help your mind, body, and nervous system heal.
No matter how hard you’ve tried to move on from things in the past, they keep coming up. Maybe you have tried talk therapy but haven’t found the change you are looking for.
Maybe you know that you have experienced a traumatic event in your life. Or maybe you often find yourself feeling anxious or depressed.
EMDR taps into your innate abilities.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy is used to help clients heal from difficult experiences or past traumas. Although EMDR was originally created to support people with PTSD, we now have learned that it is effective at treating a wide array of concerns.
Our bodies are naturally wired to heal but sometimes in life we have experiences that are overwhelming to our nervous systems and they “get stuck”. This means that those experiences are not able to be processed or integrated causing us emotional distress in the present. EMDR works to support your nervous system to reprocess these experiences so that you can heal and move past them. This way those memories that keep popping up in the present can feel more distant and like they are in the past.
During our EMDR sessions we will work our way through EMDR’s 8-phase protocol but I’ll make sure it’s tailored to you. Together we’ll explore what memories in the past are being activated in the present and talk about how you would rather manage or respond to these. Then I will support you in holding that experience in your mind and engaging in bilateral stimulation (BLS). BLS can involve eye-movements, tapping, buzzers, or auditory sounds to activate different sides of your brain. This unlocks your nervous system and allows your brain to process the stuck memory.
How does EMDR work?
Although EMDR has 8 phases of treatment, every phase of treatment is catered to you.
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We’ll start by exploring your history and what experiences have gotten you to this point in life. This includes exploring early attachment figures. We’ll also explore what you would like to accomplish in EMDR and what innate strengths or “resources” you already have.
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During this phase we will talk in more detail about what EMDR is and what you can expect. We will also start to explore and develop various coping skills or resources for you to use in EMDR reprocessing and outside of sessions.
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In this phase we will discuss the memory or experience that you will be reprocessing. This includes focusing on an image, noticing emotions, body sensations, and negative cognitions. We will also discuss a “stop signal” and discuss how you have the choice to stop at any time.
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In desensitization we will use your selected form of bilateral stimulation (BLS) (tapping, eye movements, or buzzers) to activate different sides of your brain while you think about the difficult memory. The overall goal is to reduce the distress of the memory and connect the memory to more “adaptive” neural networks in your brain.
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In installation we will try to strengthen a positive belief about yourself related to the difficult memory.
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In following sessions we will revisit the previous work that we did together and make sure that the distress is still low and the installed positive belief still feels true. From here we will talk about which memory we want to work on next.
EMDR can help you:
Heal from unresolved trauma that is holding you back.
Regain control over anxiety, panic, and intense stress that feels overwhelming.
Be less activated by triggers that bring up painful emotions or thoughts.
If you’ve tried other forms of therapy with little relief.
Process and release emotional pain to move forward.
A new way forward.
Together we’ll find a new way forward.
FAQs
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EMDR was originally developed to treat PTSD but we have since studied and learned that it is effective at also treating depression, anxiety, birth trauma, eating disorders, addictions, chronic pain, and performance issues.
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No, EMDR will not make you forget the memory or experience but will lessen the emotional impact of the experience and connect to more adaptive beliefs about the experience.
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No, unlike hypnosis you are completely awake and aware. You are totally in control of the process and can stop at any time.
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Everybody’s course and duration of treatment looks different.
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Yes! While you work with your therapist we can also engage in EMDR. We’ll work on your “blocks” with EMDR while you continue talk therapy.
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In traditional talk therapy we often work the logical, thinking part of our brain but in EMDR we are able to engage other parts of the brain where a maladaptive memory may be stored. EMDR can also involve less talking or verbalizing details about the specific trauma in comparison to other therapies.