EMDR

EMDR is a memory-network oriented approach to healing trauma and other mental health symptoms and experiences. Our memories (including perceptions, attitudes, experiences, and behaviors) are stored in memory networks. When an adverse experience causes too much overwhelm or disruption to our system, the experience is maladaptively stored- meaning, it does not get “filed away” neatly like our other memories, it gets stuck. This leaves it subject to constant firing and misfiring, causing our nervous systems to respond accordingly. Think- “what’s stuck that’s causing yuck?”

Other experiences can wire into these maladaptively stored memories, creating entire networks that can fire together when triggered- think- “what wires together fires together”. Science tells us that the way we store, remember, and associate our experiences is more important than what actually may have happened or didn’t happen.

EMDR utilizes bilateral stimulation (stimulating both sides of our brain), to reprocess unresolved traumatic or adverse memories causing unwanted symptoms, responses, and distress in our daily lives. Scientists think this works by replicating what takes place in our brains during REM sleep, which helps us to produce spontaneous insights and to process our day to day experiences.

What you can expect:
We’ll start by picking an issue that keeps coming up in your life. We’ll then work together to discover memories that may be associated to that issue. We’ll then pick a memory that feels like it may be “stuck” and causing the most “yuck” to reprocess. Utilizing bilaterial stimulation, usually through self- tapping with your hands, we’ll manually “reprocess” this memory.

EMDR takes a bit of “trusting the process,” but clients are usually amazed at the insights they discover and how effective it is for completely reorganizing the way they feel about the original experience and changing their lives.

Read my blog post What The Heck is EMDR?! for more or contact me to set up your EMDR therapy.