EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing

When people are chronically stressed, raised in unpredictable or stressful environments, or traumatized, their nervous systems can be left frazzled and dysregulated.  People can develop unconscious coping: they sometimes dissociate, or automatically numb, to avoid the painful memories, emotions and sensations that are maladaptively stored in their bodies and that repeat without permission. 

Traumatized people also learn to avoid the intrusive ways upsetting material comes into their present awareness by thinking all the time, by "living" in their heads, for example, and losing touch with what is happening in their bodies or with their emotions. When people are out of touch with their bodies and feelings in this way and they are stuck in a fight, flight or freeze patterning, they frequently miss cues to relax, self-soothe, or slow down. This can, in part, lead to physical problems including tension, pain, exhaustion, stomach problems, autoimmune issues, or migraines. 

Living with this dysregulation can also begin to isolate people from friends and even family members: life becomes too overwhelming to enjoy happy moments with loved ones, and our Social Engagement System (SES), which helps us engage in the safety of our healthy relationships, begins to go offline.

Often, people underestimate their upsetting experiences and don't consider living through them as counting as "traumatic." This can happen, too, when the people around us do not acknowledge our experiences as having been overwhelming to us in the moment of experiencing them.

I gently assist people in reconnecting with their bodies and emotions, calming their nervous systems, and safely attending to their experiences of trauma in the present moment. I have practiced EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) since 2004 and am a certified EMDR therapist. 

EMDR is a very well-researched therapy that is effective for the treatment of trauma, as well as many other presenting problems. Please visit EMDR.com for more information about this life-changing therapy. I also facilitate a form of EMDR that has a more somatic (body) focus to help people reconnect with their bodies more consciously.  

There is a wonderful pre-verbal EMDR protocol that helps reset the emotional circuits, helping the body function better under stress; it also clears out and reprocesses our early life experiences stored in our memory networks before we had language to describe our experiences (this is called implicit memory) . For people who have been in therapy for extended periods, maybe even their whole lives without much progress, this pre-verbal protocol is helpful because it accesses maladaptively stored experiences that show up as psychophysiological arousal and agitated or shut-down affective states, and resources and reprocesses them, resulting in a calmer and more regulated human experience.

EMDR can be helpful in improving most any upsetting life event; don't be concerned about asking for this type of therapy, even if you do not feel you are "traumatized."

I work with clients who are in therapy with other counselors and do time-limited EMDR work.