EMDR Therapy

Kelly has gone through more than ten therapists in the past decade…

“Talk therapy is my emotional crutch. Sure, it may have helped me get to where I am professionally and personally, but I’m at a point where I want something more effective so that I’m not dependent on it anymore.”

Similarly, Emily was frustrated during her first talk therapy session…

“Do I need to tell my whole story again? It’s so tiring, and I get overwhelmed thinking that all these problems might keep following me in the years to come. Will I ever be able to shed them off permanently?”

Kelly and Emily are not alone. Talk therapy can scratch the surface, but sometimes your emotional issues are deeply rooted in your subconscious, and you need something more.

Kelly had gone through many CBT (Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy) sessions with lots of homework to help her battle her persistent negative thoughts and establish her self-esteem and confidence. She has a brilliant resume but can’t let go of this thought: “I am not good enough.” She is yet to find a cure for “never feeling happy.”

Emily shares these experiences: “I’ve read so many self-help books, and I talked to therapists about all my life problems. In fact, I know the ‘theories’ and ‘coping strategies’ so well that I could probably be a therapist! But my feelings of hopelessness, vulnerability, and despair continually seize every opportunity to knock me down.”

Kelly and Emily don’t know that our past sometimes creates long-standing “emotional blocks” in our brain that shuts out our rational mind.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) was born in the 1980s when the famous psychiatrist, Dr. Francine Shapiro, went for a walk by a lake. As she processed her thoughts, she noticed that her eyes moved quickly in a diagonal pattern. That gave her a brilliant idea!

She connected that phenomenon with what she knew of sleep research – specifically, how deep-sleep rapid eye movement (REM) helps our brain process what happens during the day. From this insight, she came up with EMDR treatment techniques.

Using touch, sight, or sound to stimulate both sides of the brain, EMDR helps people REPROCESS painful memories, rebuild neuropathways, and improve present and future functioning.

In EMDR, we often say, “Let your brain do the work.” In other words, we trust your brain can clear out the “fight, flight, or freeze” responses to past trauma that continue to trigger you today.

Imagine our brain as a big library. Every night when we sleep, our brain sorts out the memories, labeling them as “happy,” “exciting,” “sad,” “frustrating,” “angry,” etc., and then it files them away onto a shelf.

That works just fine for most of our experience, but it falls short when something overwhelming happens.

Almost every person experiences some “big T trauma” (e.g., a sudden loss, physical or sexual assault, exposure to combat, or divorce) or “little T trauma (e.g., a fallout with a best friend, an embarrassing public appearance, neglect, bullying, or criticism) during their lifetime.