EMDR Therapy

(EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING)

It Comes Out of Nowhere

The familiar panic jolts your body. Your brain is already back there.

Suddenly, you are caught in endless looping – thinking through it – again and again. You get to the end only to start over at the beginning. You see it like it’s now; you feel it like it’s now.

Your body becomes flooded with anxiety, fear, an intense rush of energy that washes through you, over you. Your brain is jagged – alarming – warning you of the dangers.

But you are not in danger. Even though your body and your brain do not believe it, there is no danger. Not now. It’s the past that triggered that memory today. But knowing that makes no difference!

That memory hijacked your brain and body – again.

“I’m not over it,” you think, frustrated. “I just can’t get over it.”

Some Things Get Stuck

We all have difficult experiences. Many of these, even some of the toughest, we move through and manage. In these instances, our brains heal naturally, much the same way the body does. We process what happened and the emotions related to it. Though it may be difficult, we come back to a place of emotional health. We don’t like that it happened, but we have distance from it.

Sometimes, though, an experience gets stuck and remains unprocessed in the brain. The memories and feelings related to it are stored in a raw, emotional, and traumatic form. This can happen with one-time experiences. It can happen with those repeated messages we couldn’t unhear.

Unprocessed memories can come up suddenly without warning in response to reminders we run across in our day-to-day lives. When they do, they come up as they’re stored in the brain. Raw and emotional.

Sometimes, we don’t even know what’s happening; we don’t understand this intensity. The memory is forgotten, but the painful feelings – anxiety, panic, anger, or despair – are triggered by the present.

Zombie Messages Are Dragging You Down

“I’m a bad person.”

“I’m weak.”

‘I’m not good enough.”

“There’s something wrong with me.”

“I cannot do it.”

These are automatic messages from the past. You know they’re not true, but that doesn’t help. They sneak in and tear you down every time you try to get up. They have weight and authority they don’t deserve.

It’s a kind of terrible programming. These are patterns and ways of thinking and behaving that were laid down in the past. They don’t belong in the present, but you cannot let go of them.

Getting Distance with EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy that helps the brain process experiences that have not healed naturally. EMDR was initially developed as a treatment for trauma. It is also used effectively to treat anxiety, panic, depression, anger, and more. We can use it alone as a focused treatment or integrate it with other approaches as we work together.

EMDR plugs into natural physical processes that help our brains work with memory. We use it intentionally to work through memories that have gotten stuck. A combination of physical action and structured focus on your target memories allows your brain to process the target and the emotions related to it.

It sounds a little strange, doesn’t it? But it has been scientifically validated in many studies over many years.

Peace and Restoration Are Possible

EMDR therapy does not change your memory of a traumatic event. It dramatically decreases the intensity you feel related to the event. After EMDR, you remember, know it was hard, and you have appropriate distance. It is not stuck, ready to grab you at any moment. You have peace.

After EMDR therapy, clients report feeling lighter, better about themselves, calmer. They note a sense of ease knowing that it happened, and they are okay. Their emotions today are free to respond to today – no longer chained to old injuries and pain.

Take action. Call (720) 593-6867 for a free 20-minute consultation.

Let’s talk about how EMDR can help you.