When we experience trauma or an adverse experience, at that  moment in time, our brain releases a chemical surge of emotion throughout your body.  It records that memory as a movie clip with  physical body sensations from the way your body recorded the emotion. And over time, the brain tries to make meaning of the experience about who we are, about others or the world around us, such as: 

• “I am not good enough, 

• I am not lovable, 

• something is wrong with me, 

• I am not safe, 

• I am on my own, 

• I am bad, 

• I cannot show my emotions and more. 

After a period of time, we begin to “reprocess” those maladaptive memories by titrating your exposure to the memories and how it’s stored in your body. You get to step into the memory as yourself or as a fly on the wall who just observes the past version of yourself. Through a method of bilateral stimulation (tapping, eye movement, buzzers, etc), we overtax the brain and it dumps the unnecessary data (the physical response) and give yourself room to build your inner resilience.

Even if you don’t have trauma, EMDR is an incredibly helpful method to reduce anxiety, depression, PTSD symptoms, low self-esteem, addictions and more. 

EMDR targets identifying the negative, limiting beliefs  that subconciously or consciously drive our anxieties, fears, avoidance or self-sabotaging thoughts and behaviors.  These negative experiences create a clog in the way you process memories and new information. 

EMDR is more than talk therapy. Actually, even if you have a significant experience that you are too embarrassed or ashamed to talk about, you don’t have to share it during your session to still reap the benefits of EMDR.  EMDR actually works most effectively when you spend less time talking and verbally processing the information that comes up. It wants you to be less “heady” and “cognitive” and more explorative of your mind, body and soul. 

In other types of therapy, you work significantly to create awareness around the trigger and the visceral response that is instantaneously activated, then rely on your ability to use Logic and tap into breathing exercises or other mindful approaches. 

EMDR helps you rewire the brain in a way that the triggers don’t automatically jump to the negative feelings or thoughts. 

EMDR therapy is like taking a helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon of your brain. You can see where the rivers have once flowed powerfully, creating larrge valleys and smaller valleys that branch off. When the water flows, it follows the valley most traveled, which might be  valleys constantly filled with turmoil, negative feelings and adverse experiences. We work to stop feeding the negative valleys,  look to find smaller branches to direct to,  and eventually  cut off the flow to troubled waters and redirect to valleys that lead to calmer waters.