Orlando Therapist Answers the Question - What is EMDR Therapy?
Orlando Therapist Answers the Question What is EMDR Therapy?
Have you heard a lot about EMDR Therapy? Maybe a friend recently shared that they trying it and they love it! Or you've read about a celebrity doing it and they are getting profound results (check out our links below with interviews with Prince Harry and Sandra Bullock). In either case, you’re wondering what in the world is EMDR Therapy? EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and reprocessing. The EMDR Therapists at Mindful Living Counseling Orlando decided to take a moment and answer this question for you.
As a therapy practice that specializes in Trauma Counseling we have many clients who ask us, what is EMDR Therapy?
Shauna Hughes, RMHCI specializes in trauma therapy, relationship counseling, and anxiety therapy. Shauna shares that when something traumatic happens, it seems to get locked in the brain with the original picture, sounds, thoughts, feelings, and so on. Since the experience is locked in there, it continues to be triggered whenever a reminder comes up. EMDR Therapy, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, can be used to help clients unlock the system and resolve the triggering.
One way to think about it is to imagine scrubbing a grimy casserole dish. In the same way that food can leave stubborn stains and residue in a dish, traumatic experiences can leave emotional triggers and negative beliefs in our brains. EMDR Therapy functions as an effective cleaning agent, helping to scrub away negative emotions and beliefs associated with past traumas. I will assist you in focusing on past target memory, and bilateral stimulation, such as tapping or eye movement, unlocks the brain's natural healing processes.
As the ‘cleaning’ process continues, just like a casserole dish being scrubbed clean, the negative emotions and beliefs associated with the trauma begin to fade away. This leaves you feeling lighter, less triggered, and more empowered to move forward with your life. As we work to heal these traumatic memories, EMDR Therapy can serve as an effective tool for cleaning away the emotional residue and help feel like yourself again.
EMDR Therapy - Getting to the Root
Teen therapist Elizabeth Yoak, LMHC believes EMDR Therapy gets to the root of our current symptoms and distress by looking at our past experiences and memories. Elizabeth uses this modality with adult and teen clients struggling with anxiety, trauma, and depression. Elizabeth explained that our brains have a natural information processing system that we are born with. As we go through life, this system takes the important information we need to help with learning and growth and lets the rest of the information from the experience go. When we go through a disturbing or traumatic experience, our information processing system becomes overwhelmed.
When this happens, the memory becomes stored in the brain the way we originally experienced it, holding onto the same thoughts, feelings, images, and physical sensations that occurred during this experience. Because of this, these past experiences can be easily triggered in our present life. The eye movements and other right-left stimulation we use in EMDR Therapy can help activate your brain’s information-processing system in a secure place to process past experiences and let go of what is not useful to you. The right-left eye movements are used to mimic a stage in sleep known as REM sleep. During this stage, it is believed that our information processing system becomes more active and processes what took place that day.
By using this bilateral stimulation, we are helping the brain process these past events that are contributing to current reactions and symptoms that you are experiencing. Often, past memories are the foundation of many emotional problems - this is where EMDR Therapy comes in to help.
Untangling and Reorganizing
Trauma therapist Trissa Dodson, LMHC explains how our brains and bodies are designed to keep us alive and as safe as possible in any given situation. Our brain-body system will always do its best to take in all the information we’re given, process it, and integrate it into our memories to keep us balanced and moving forward. Sometimes it really difficult or traumatic situations, we have a hard time organizing that information, and it gets stuck in our systems.
When our systems are working effectively, it’s like water running smoothly through a garden hose. But when trauma impacts us, our systems become hyper-drive, and sometimes the information between our brains and bodies gets stored incorrectly. It’s as if the garden hose suddenly gets knotted up in some places, potentially causing issues in other areas of the hose, and ultimately leaving our gardens with insufficient water! If we experience similar distressing moments, over time these moments get stored together in a chain of memories–potentially forming a tangled network of linked memories.
EMDR Therapy is designed to target these memory networks and safely untangle and reorganize those experiences, to where our brain-body systems are running smoothly again. When we get a cut on the hand, our system knows how to heal itself without us consciously telling it to do so. It will coagulate blood to stop us from bleeding, form a scab, and grow new skin cells or scar tissue. EMDR functions similarly to our mental health. By using bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, etc.), we activate the different parts of the brain and help the brain-body system to repair itself, flow freely again, and safely bring us to a place where our gardens can thrive. Trissa specializes in working with sexual assault and other traumas with adults and teens and believes EMDR Therapy help her clients overcome their past and feel inspired about life again.
Communicating and Processing
Mindful Living Counseling practice owner Lauran Hahn, LMHC describes when a disturbing event occurs, it can get locked in the brain and the body with original pictures, sounds, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, which are primarily in the right brain. When something comes along and reminds us of a past event, consciously or subconsciously, our brains and bodies start to react as if the scary or difficult event is happening now. It’s like the brain and body can’t tell the past is behind us.
The left part of the brain which is more cognitive and rational might be able to acknowledge that the reaction doesn’t seem to fit the situation, but in the wake of trauma or difficult events, the left and right brains aren’t communicating properly, so the right brain will continue to flood the system with the trauma response: intense emotions, body sensations, hypervigilance, anxiety, fear, and so on...
The bilateral stimulation in EMDR Therapy (eye movements, tapping, tones) helps the right and left brain communicate and process the difficult events from the past, so your nervous system can stop responding as if you are in danger today.
Ready to Start Therapy?
At Mindful Living Counseling Orlando, all of our therapists are trained in EMDR Therapy, as we specialize in trauma, anxiety, and healing toxic relationship patterns.
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Need More Time Before Starting EMDR Therapy Orlando?
Our highly trained team will help you gain tools that will help you overcome any anxiety may be feeling to help you navigate life again. If you’re not ready, we understand. Take all the time you need and reach out when you’re ready.
Additional Resources
EMDR Therapy: Healing the Unspoken
EMDR Therapy Orlando for a Recent Trauma
Orlando Therapist Explains How EMDR Therapy Works
Orlando Therapist Explains What to Expect in EMDR Therapy
Prince Harry’s video on EMDR Therapy
Sandra Bullock’s video on EMDR Therapy
Types of Counseling: What is EMDR?
Is EMDR Therapy Right for You?
Other Therapy Services Offered at Mindful Living Counseling in Orlando, FL
Our therapists understand that trauma may not be the only challenge you may struggle with. We’re happy to share that we offer a variety of therapy services at Mindful Living Counseling which include Trauma therapy, Eating Disorder Therapy, Toxic Relationship Therapy, and Teen Therapy. We encourage you to check out our Guided Meditations.