I’m excited to add EMDR as an option for clients throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia.
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy is an evidence-based integrative psychotherapy approach. It is a powerful and cutting edge treatment that enables people to heal from the emotional distress of painful life experiences, trauma, and memories. A breakthrough approach that has been extensively researched and used by clinicians for over 20 years, EMDR Therapy can bring quick and lasting relief to those suffering from emotional distress. EMDR Therapy accesses the brain’s natural tendency to heal by stimulating both sides of the brain (bilateral stimulation or BLS) through the use of eye movements, taps, or sounds.
What Happens In Your Brain
Most of the time your brain routinely manages new information and experiences without you being aware of it. However, when something out of the ordinary occurs and you are significantly distressed or traumatized, your natural coping mechanism can become overloaded. This overloading causes the distressing experiences to remain frozen in your brain “unprocessed” in raw form.
When you experience similar events, or even dream about similar events, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions create an overwhelming feeling of being back in that moment, or being “frozen in time.” Sometimes you may not be able to access the actual memory of the event, but the painful feelings such as anxiety, panic, anger or despair are continually triggered in the present. Therefore, your ability to live in the present and learn from new experiences is inhibited.
Through the bilateral stimulation of EMDR the connections between your brain’s memory networks are accessed, enabling your brain to finally process the distressing experience in a very natural way.
Who can benefit from EMDR therapy?
EMDR therapy can help address a wide range of challenges:
- Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
- Chronic Illness and medical issues
- Depression and bipolar disorders
- Dissociative disorders
- Eating disorders
- Grief and Loss
- Pain
- Performance anxiety
- Personality disorders
- Sexual assault
- Sleep disturbance
- Stress and stressful experiences
- Substance abuse and addiction
- Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
- Violence and abuse
- And more …
Contact me today to discuss EMDR and schedule your appointment.