EMDR Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
Our bodies naturally know how to respond to stressful situations.
Humans are physiologically hardwired with certain reactions to perceived risk.
Our “fight, flight, freeze” response allows us to cope with immediate threats – we leap out of the way of a distracted driver, find atypical courage in the face of intimidation, or realize we’ve been holding our breath while trying to place a sound in the night.
In each case, the physiological processes that allow us to complete these necessary actions should also begin to wind down afterward, returning our bodies to homeostasis and allowing our minds to acknowledge that the threat has passed.
Sometimes, those responses don’t fully wind down.
Unfortunately, when we fail to adequately “reset” our nervous system, the memory generated for the event remains just as charged as the event itself. You’ve experienced first-hand the toll this hypervigilance can take, even if you didn’t realize that’s what was happening in your body at the time.
These incidents are not limited to what we might call “big T” traumas. Instead, they include memories of even seemingly minor distress – those otherwise forgettable moments that end up as guiding evidence in your developing sense of self.
For instance, years since you broke your mother’s snow globe, you still cringe when you hear a glass shatter from across the restaurant. Sensations of failure and guilt flood you, and it’s all you can do to find someone to apologize to, even though you aren’t involved.
Another day, a colleague’s facial expression ignites a hot resentment that you know doesn’t fit the situation, but you can’t seem to shake it.
Because our memories cluster around commonalities, a single traumatic event can be the template for our reactions to a wide range of experiences, causing us to perceive danger and threats where there may be none. Often, this leaves you feeling confused and out of control of your emotional state, even when your rational mind is fully aware that your feelings are out of step with what’s happening around you.
EMDR helps reset those nagging memories.
EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is an evidence-based treatment for trauma and distressing memories. It uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain reprocess experiences that are still stuck, so they stop driving your reactions in the present. You do not need to narrate every detail of what happened for it to work.
Because people tend to get stuck reliving these target memories as though they are still happening in the present, EMDR allows us to retroactively apply our current resources to the distressing event experienced by that earlier self.
Using a highly structured sequence of techniques known as the Standard Protocol, we will trace backward through a series of memories with the same emotional and physiological resonance as your current biggest stressor, eventually identifying a “target memory” for reprocessing.
EMDR is especially effective for trauma, PTSD symptoms, and memories that keep resurfacing, regardless of how much time has passed.
Don’t let those memories keep you stuck in the past.
At Anel Lee & Associates, EMDR is offered as part of individual therapy for clients throughout California, virtually, in English and Spanish.
This is not a slower version of talk therapy. It is a different mechanism entirely, and for many clients it reaches what talk therapy alone could not.
Let’s chat to learn if EMDR is an option for you.