Healing Trauma with EMDR

Feel you can’t quite get your head above water?

Life after trauma is different.

Our brains, bodies, thoughts, and lives feel upended. People may not understand, but it’s common to feel constantly overwhelmed – like everything is too much to handle. On top of that, it feels like no one understands because you look the same, yet everything has changed. Things seemed to be so much easier ‘before.’ Now, every day feels difficult.

Regardless of whether you recently experienced something stressful or traumatic or have multiple instances of trauma such as childhood trauma or complex trauma, the symptoms are much the same. You live in a state of hyper-vigilance where your body constantly tries to convince you that someone is out to get you, and you should be on guard. This can manifest in being angry or pushing people away. This can feel chaotic when you also crave connection and partnership, but it feels so scary, too.

Sometimes remembering the past can feel so vivid…

… that you catch your breath as you feel exactly how you felt in that moment.

You may not even realize you are having a flashback which makes these feelings confusing, disorienting, and painful.

You feel unsafe, and your heart starts racing. You feel it again, all those familiar feelings. You can’t sleep, have nightmares, avoid places or people that make you feel worried.

Your mind might also be clouded with negative beliefs about yourself. You feel unworthy of love. You worry you are broken or tainted. You feel no one can love you or see your value because sometimes you can’t do that for yourself.

It’s often difficult to let go of these beliefs – to figure out what is real. Trauma affects our brains and changes how we think and perceive the world. We call that trauma brain or a brain that becomes hardwired to look for danger and feel unsafe even in safe situations. We feel guarded because our bodies perceive danger constantly. When everyone else seems at ease and enjoying themselves, sometimes this makes us feel, well, crazy. However, this is your body’s attempt to care for you and totally normal symptoms of trauma.

These memories, feelings, and beliefs can be so real it feels like you are living in the past.

This is why traditional talk therapy doesn’t really work on trauma…

According to experts such as Peter Levine, Bessel Van Der Kolk, and Pat Ogden, trauma can become lodged in the body. That’s why talk therapy is seldom effective at releasing trauma.

When we think or talk about trauma, it often triggers our bodies. Our heart rate goes up, and our thinking gets cloudy. We feel danger, and we get flooded with emotions. We may begin to shake or cry.

In that space, we cannot be logical or rational.

Let me introduce you to the magic of EMDR…

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a body-based treatment. That means we release the trauma stored in the body. This process is about trusting your brain and body.

I’m familiar with the neuroscientific language around it, but the best way to describe EMDR that I have found is simply… MAGIC!

At first, I was skeptical (just as you probably are right now). But I’ve seen the transformations first-hand. I’m now a true believer in its power to heal our deepest, darkest shadows.

Let’s go a bit deeper into how it works…

To heal trauma and move into the present, you’ll need to properly grieve the past and healing from the negative beliefs you’ve had about yourself. EMDR lets us do that.

In the 1970s, Frances Shapiro created EMDR, an evidence-based practice for treating trauma since then. EMDR is an 8-phase treatment. I will walk you through the stages in therapy – and no, you don’t need to remember the phases.

In the initial stages of EMDR, we will review your goals, history, and what you want to work on. It feels essentially the same as talk therapy. The second step of EMDR is a little different. During this time, we will begin to work with the wisdom of the body. At this stage, I will help you learn and integrate tools to regulate your nervous system or feel relaxed and calm in your body. This will help you identify emotions, how you are feeling, and your boundaries.

The next step is processing negative memories or “reprocessing.” This stage will focus on utilizing your body’s power to return to a difficult memory and reprocess it by using bi-lateral stimulation either visually, physically (with tappers), or both. This will not change the memory but just lessen any power it may have in your life, such as whipping out pain, panic responses such as increased heart rate, anger, and avoidance. In the next steps, we look to the future. During this phase, we process what you have learned and practice taking that into the future and how to address roadblocks as they come up.

There are many theories about why bilateral stimulation promotes healing. There are theories… like how it replicates the deeper states of sleep. But, honestly, we still don’t fully understand why it is so effective.

But the results are clear: You’ll be able to distance yourself emotionally from your traumatic memories. It’ll be like watching a movie: You can see it, but it won’t have any real power over you.

Imagine the confidence to tackle your next steps without fear!

I know it can be difficult to let go of the past or even imagine that it is possible to heal. At a certain point, we begin to identify with our trauma, like I am a victim of Blank or I survived Blank or Blank means I am wounded, tainted, unworthy of love.

It is time for you to let go of the past and all that pain, and identify with just being the amazing human you are. Trust in the process.

Give me a call to set up an appointment or free 20-minute consultation: (720) 295-6076.