What is EMDR Therapy?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an integrative psychotherapy approach that is effective for the treatment of trauma. EMDR therapy addresses a wide range of mental health conditions stemming from traumatic experiences and distressing life events.

By guiding your eyes in specific movements, EMDR facilitates the processing of these memories, fostering healing and resolution. EMDR has garnered significant recognition for its effectiveness. During clinical trials, EMDR has shown to expedite healing compared to other therapeutic approaches.

EMDR Therapy focuses on the individual’s present concerns and symptoms while proposing emotionally charged experiences from one’s past. This may have a dominating effect on one’s current emotions, sensations, and thoughts.

EMDR therapy processing helps you break through the emotional blocks that may be keeping you from living an adaptive and emotionally fulfilling life. We target cognitive, emotional and somatic layers that make up these emotional blocks and work to rewrite the narrative.

EMDR therapy serves as a transformative approach to addressing distressing experiences and trauma without the necessity of delving into intricate details during therapy sessions. We utilize EMDR therapy as both a model and an approach to healing. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR focuses on reshaping the emotions, thoughts, and behaviors that stem from traumatic events, thereby facilitating the brain’s natural healing processes.

What does EMDR treat?

EMDR therapy has proven to be effective in treating trauma and PTSD. It is also highly effective in treating mental health symptoms, such as anxiety, self-worth, depression, phobias, and panic disorders. EMDR therapy is also useful in addressing performance-related symptoms at work, such as public speaking, assertiveness, and enhancing communication skills.

How does Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy work?

EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to help you update disturbing experiences. During sleep, we alternate between regular sleep and REM (rapid eye movement). This sleep pattern helps you process things that are troubling you. EMDR therapy replicates this sleep pattern by alternating bilateral stimulation and brief reports or processing of what you are noticing. This alternating process helps you update your memories to a healthier emotional presence. Rachel utilizes both tactile, auditor and visual bilateral stimulation with her clients.

Why is this type of therapy used?

At Head and Heart Collective, we utilize the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model as the cornerstone of our EMDR therapy approach. Developed by Francine Shapiro, PhD, the founder of EMDR therapy, the AIP model offers insights into how the brain processes and stores memories.

The AIP model recognizes the fundamental disparity in the storage of normal memories versus traumatic memories within the brain. During routine events, memories are seamlessly encoded and integrated, forming cohesive networks that connect to various aspects of one’s lived experiences. However, after an individual experiences a distressing or traumatic incident, this neural networking process falters. The brain essentially goes “offline,” creating a disconnection between the sensory input (what one feels, hears, sees) and the memory storage mechanism through language.

Trauma memories are lodged in the brain in a manner that impedes the natural healing process. The brain fails to register the cessation of danger, perpetuating a cycle of distress (fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses). Moreover, future experiences can become intertwined with past traumatic events, reinforcing negative associations and exacerbating psychological distress. This disruption not only affects the linkage between sensory stimuli and memories but also inflicts injury upon the psyche, heightening sensitivity to trauma-related triggers.

By understanding the intricacies of the AIP model, we tailor treatment strategies to facilitate the adaptive processing of traumatic memories. Through targeted interventions, we can transcend the grip of past traumas, fostering resilience and reclaiming agency over their emotional well-being.

At Head and Heart Collective, our EMDR therapy sessions harness these principles to empower individuals to navigate their healing journey effectively, fostering profound emotional and psychological transformation.