EM DR Therapy
Healing takes courage, and we all have courage, even if we have
to dig a little to find it.
- Tori Amos
About EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocess (EMDR) Therapy is an evidenced-based, trauma-focused therapy used to treat emotional trauma. It is also proven effective for treatment of other mental health disorders including anxiety, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, phobias, complicated grief, and chronic pain.
EMDR therapy is recognized as an effective treatment tool by the World Health Organization, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Psychological Association.
How Trauma Changes Us
Emotional trauma and wounding can develop following a single event or a series of events or experiences that are emotionally disturbing or inhibits a person’s sense of safety and control. Experiencing emotional trauma alters the most primitive part of our brain, changing how we experience safety and navigate the world around us. These experiences can also cause us to feel stuck in the past or cause emotional blocks that prevent us from healing and recovering from those experiences.
Most people think of emotional trauma as a response to big events such as a life-threatening accident, being victim to violence or abuse, catastrophic disasters, or witnessing any of those events. However, emotional trauma and wounding can also develop in response to experiences in life that we might not think of as traumatic, such as:
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Medical-related traumas:
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NICU/PICU/ICU hospitalization
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Diagnosis chronic or terminal illness
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Diagnosis and treatment of chronic or terminal illness of your child
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Baby born with complex medical needs or congenital disorder
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Accidents that cause bodily harm or require rehabilitation
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Pregnancy or birth complications:
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Infertility
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High-risk pregnancy
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Birth trauma
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Miscarriage
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Pregnancy termination for medical reasons (TFMR)
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Traumatic Losses
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Loss of a child or a baby
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Pregnancy loss(es)
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Loss of a spouse or partner
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Loss following prolonged suffering
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Loss due to violence
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Sudden or unexpected loss
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Therapy can often starts with the question of what is wrong with you to cause you to feel this way?
In EMDR therapy, instead of asking what is wrong with you, we ask what has happened to you to cause you to feel this way?
How EMDR Therapy Can Help
EMDR is a structured therapy that uses the body’s innate healing abilities to heal the parts of the brain that are altered by emotional trauma and wounding.
In the beginning phases, we work together to increase your distress tolerance and identify memories of the emotionally traumatic experiences that are most impactful. During reprocessing phases, we target those memories and facilitate reprocessing those memories to resolve the traumatic elements tied to those experiences. EMDR therapy utilizes bilateral stimulation, which is simply side-to-side stimulation, to help facilitate healing. Bilateral stimulation can be administered through side-to-side eye movement, alternating audio tones through headphones, or tactile stimulation through tapping with your hands. Bilateral stimulation is soothing to the primitive part of the brain that regulates our stress response, also known as the “fight, flight, or freeze” response. The experience of having dual attention of the traumatic memory and the bilateral stimulation at the same time allows the brain to recall the traumatic experience without becoming overwhelmed and initiating a stress response. This process allows the more evolved parts of the brain to process the traumatic experience, which can lead to a more adaptive understanding of the experience, and it allows you to see the traumatic experience from a different perspective.
Sometimes in life, we learn about a time in history, then later in life, perhaps through additional education, our own experiences, or through relationships with others, we learn more about that time in history. We gain a deeper, more nuanced understanding of that time period and see it from a different perspective.
That experience is similar to EMDR reprocessing of traumatic experiences. EMDR therapy helps reprocess the emotionally traumatic or wounding experience in a way that allows a person to understand the experiences from a different perspective, one grounded in safety and resilience. After reprocessing a memory with EMDR, the information about the experience is the same, but how we understand the experience, the meaning we make from it, and how it impacts our daily life is different. This difference in understanding and meaning is what leads to healing and a path forward.
EMDR Therapy at Noticing Growth
At Noticing Growth Therapy Group, Inc. EMDR therapy is provided either in-person or virtually and can happen during a regular 50-53 minute long session. Meghann is a Certified EMDR Therapist.
EMDR therapy starts with preparation and history taking, identifying the emotional wounds that need healing. When you are ready, we move forward to the reprocessing phases of EMDR therapy. At Noticing Growth. we utilize a digital platform that provides bilateral stimulation either through a ball moving across a computer screen, alternating audio tones through headphones, or with tactile buzzers. This same platform is used for in-person or virtual EMDR therapy sessions.
Our job as the clinician is to support and nurture you during EMDR therapy reprocessing so you are able to notice, and heal through the process.