EMDR

When we experience pain or trauma that we are not able to process, either because we do not have the resources or the understanding, that hurting part of us essentially becomes stuck in time, reliving the pain. The memory is raw and alive, filled with a painful, negative charge and connected to a negative belief about ourselves, such as “I am not safe,” “I am shameful,” or “I am a failure.” EMDR is used to identify and distance from those unhelpful beliefs, allowing us to discover more adaptive and helpful truths, shifting and expanding how we see ourselves and the world. The memory is still there, but EMDR takes the charge out of it. We can now see it as we see other memories, in perspective and with distance.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been shown through extensive research to heal emotional pain and trauma faster than previous forms of therapy. EMDR can be used for PTSD, physical and sexual abuse, anxiety, depression, dissociative disorders, complicated grief, phobias, stress, performance anxiety, and more.

I have found that replacing negative, unhelpful traumatic thoughts with truth about God’s love and power is an effective use of EMDR. 

Imagine...

A little girl, only 3 years old, enters the kitchen to ask for juice. Mom and Dad are fighting, and Mom yells at the little girl: “Get out of here! Go to your room!” The little girl shrinks back and runs to her room, crying. She thinks Mom is mad at her and that it’s her fault. She is bad for needing juice and bad because she asked for it. Imagine a similar situation happens again, a few times or many times. With each occurrence, the little girl is learning that having needs is wrong, and that she is bad when she tries to meet those needs.

As an adult, it is easy to see that the little girl did nothing wrong; that her mom’s reaction was unacceptable. As a little girl, she cannot see outside of herself and does not understand why Mom is really upset. Now that little girl is 30 years old, with a job and family. One day her husband or boss yells at her and suddenly she feels 3 years old again. She is crying, yelling, hiding, or freezing up and has no idea why. She may not actively remember the juice, or other situations like it. But she is responding to the present situation with information from the experiences of being 3 years old — like she is stuck in time. That information is stuck, separated from the knowledge that she is a grown woman with the power to choose and protect herself, with the knowledge and love of God. With EMDR, we can integrate the information from being 3 years old with new information in the present. No more being stuck in the past.

EMDR is an Option, Not a Requirement

I am passionate about EMDR and love using it to help people move through pain of all kinds. However, I am have experience and training in a variety of therapies and will work with you to find the best fit. My allegiance is not to any particular therapy; it is to you and your healing.

Watch this video to learn more about EMDR