Trauma Therapy and EMDR
Do you feel as if your difficult season has lasted entirely too long?
Maybe even since your childhood, or since a particular event took place? If so, you may be experiencing symptoms of PTSD and/or Complex PTSD. Some common symptoms can include but are not limited to;
1. Distressing memories, nightmares and flashbacks.
2. Avoidance of things that remind you of the traumatic event.
3. Difficulty recalling what happened.
4. Unrelenting negative beliefs about yourself or others.
5. Persistent feelings of fear, anger, guilt or shame.
6. Struggling to experience positive emotional states.
7. Abrupt mood swings.
8. Feeling always on edge or numbed out and not knowing why.
My training in EMDR has given me tools to help alleviate these symptoms with effective and clinically proven methods. I derive tremendous satisfaction from helping clients manage, diminish and overcome these symptoms so that they can move forward unburdened to a brighter present and future.
What is EMDR?
Imagine your life as a book with chapters. Let's say your present moment is somewhere in chapter 35, however something that happened in chapter 16 still haunts you to this day. It brings up unwelcome sensations, feelings and thoughts in your present chapter. It is distressing, distracting and disturbing. You wish that you could just forget it ever happened. What EMDR enables us to do is to start keeping what happened in chapter 16 back in chapter 16! You will still remember what happened, but maybe you won't think about it as often and it won't bother you as much as it used to. You may even have some new perspectives on your experiences after having processed with EMDR.
EMDR is based upon the central idea that the brain knows how to heal itself from the effects of trauma. In EMDR we stimulate both sides of the brain in order to facilitate this healing. We do this through a variety of methods. Most times, in order to achieve this I will invite you to hold small pulsars that buzz gently in your hands. At the same time you will be asked to focus briefly on different aspects of the traumatic memory. When these elements come together the brain begins to sort out these difficult memories and integrate them in a way that decreases or eliminates the symptoms of PTSD and C-PTSD.