We live in a world full of self-help resources and opportunities to learn about yourself and your problems. You can find answers to your cycles and patterns from TikTok, YouTube, podcasts, endless blogs and your self-appointed, mental health “expert” Instagram friend. There comes a point though where you get “learned out.” You’ve ingested all you can, know your childhood trauma inside and out, hold the PhD on where your PTSD and anxiety comes from and can quote every facet of your Enneagram number and Myers-Brigg’s type. Some of you have even tried traditional talk-therapy in counseling and may be wondering what EMDR Therapy is all about.
If you are like so many of my clients, you may have found you really aren’t making the progress you were hoping for despite all the work you’ve put into your healing journey. You still get triggered time and again by “that look” from your loved one. Not hearing back from your significant other for a few hours still sends your mind spiraling even though you logically know they are working or just busy. You always somehow enter back into the SAME dynamics every holiday with your family when you were doing “so good.” Every single one of those instances has an origin experience from our past and subsequent belief system that needs healing, which is an integral part of EMDR Therapy.
While understanding where you’ve come from and having self-awareness is an extremely important part of the process, it’s just the first step toward healing. There is a gap between knowledge vs true healing, and it isn’t going to come from someone telling you to, “Just get over it,” or, “Time heals all wounds.” It’s also not going to come from learning all you can and then you are magically cured. You can understand the mechanics of riding a bike, but unless you physically get on the bike and try it out, you will never really know how to ride it.
This is where EMDR Therapy comes in. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s a highly researched and evidenced based treatment for a wide range of mental health issues and prior trauma. If you are a newbie to trauma, let me sum it up for you. Trauma can be anything that was difficult for your system to process. It can range from consistent neglect and getting bullied in school to the extreme PTSD responses you see in first responders and in veterans.
Trauma doesn’t just go away with time or knowledge of what was traumatic for you. Trauma essentially gets stuck and doesn’t process properly in our memory. What doesn’t get processed from the past comes back to haunt us in the present. Our body’s nervous system remembers how you were feeling and the unprocessed experiences that are just chillin there in your nervous system.
EMDR Therapy bridges the gap and processes the hard experiences you’ve been through, the ones your body can’t seem to let go of, to allow you to bring resolve to those hurt places in your life that have been wounded for far too long.
If you are curious about learning more on EMDR Therapy and whether it would benefit you, please give us a call. Our offices in Gilbert and Phoenix have clinicians who are highly trained in EMDR Therapy with current therapy openings.
Healing really can be within your reach, you just have to take the brave step to look into EMDR Therapy.