EMDR
(Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right.
Beliefs are powerful, and it’s not just in a spiritual sense. What happens when they are negative and reinforced by trauma? They sound and play out like these:
- You believe that if people got to know the real you, they’d run. Best hide that and pretend to be something else. Except now you are living a lie.
- You’re broken beyond repair; you’ll see it everywhere. Hopelessness and bitter pain live rent-free in your head and direct your life.
- Never trust people because you were betrayed; it’s best to keep your guard up as a matter of survival, and it’s wise to do so. But it’s lonely.
Beliefs will affect how you see your life, and you will act in service of them if they aren’t brought into the light of your conscious awareness.
If this resonates, then you know it’s time for a change.
Maybe the damage was done by parents or other adults in power, trauma that was never healed, or too many failures and not enough support.
The more you encounter something that confirms that negative belief, the more solid the neural pathways become.
It can lead to a vastly reduced quality of life.
While many of these beliefs you may have come to accept as 100% true, oftentimes they are not.
EMDR can break these pathways.
This approach is an evidence-based therapy initially used to heal trauma, but it can do far more than that.
EMDR essentially rewires the brain to heal trauma as well as change core beliefs established over a lifetime of memories and experiences. Usually, these are in the subconscious, influencing us like a sort of psychological malware.
It will not make someone believe in absurdities, nor is it a magic bullet. On the contrary, the lies we have come to believe about ourselves start to fade as you see them differently.
EMDR stimulates the hemispheres of your brain to balance your emotional and logical sides, working with your nervous system to create lasting changes. With negative beliefs, one hemisphere of the brain usually overrides the other; balancing them changes the playing field.
In sessions with me…
I work collaboratively with you on what you want to change. It’s not just about removing the bad stuff, but also about replacing it with something we decide on. This is not something that can be forced or manipulated.
But that’s just part of it. EMDR by itself is an incomplete therapy that needs another method to support it effectively. I use Somatic Experiencing, Jungian Shadow work, Applied Existential Therapy, and everything else I have learned in my 15+ years of doing therapy.
My goal is to use EMDR in a way that doesn’t overwhelm your system. While it can be emotionally intense and you may feel tired afterward, usually, clients find it relaxing and empowering. Traumas and their pain volume are turned way down.
Bringing the past into a new light strengthens you as the traumas that power the negative beliefs are processed in the mind and body.
Let’s create some positive beliefs.
If you are ready to create a positive belief system, EMDR may be the instrument of change you have been seeking.
Don’t let trauma define who you are. Together, we can lighten the weight of those negative beliefs.
Contact me today for a free consultation to learn more about EMDR and my approach to helping you overcome the effects of trauma.