When something negative or traumatizing happens, it can get stuck in your brain. This can cause you to have negative beliefs about yourself. Maybe you grew up with an abusive parent. And in adulthood, you think things like “I am not good enough.” Especially when you’re triggered by things like your partner or boss criticizing you. When this happens, your reaction may be more extreme than you would like.
EMDR helps you become “unstuck.” So, you’re reaction to triggering events or people won’t negatively interfere with your daily life. EMDR will help you cope with what happened to you so you can heal.
What is Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)?
According to EMDRIA (EMDR International Association), EMDR is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method. It is proven to help people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorders. It is an eight-phase protocol that is worked at the client’s pace. These phases include history taking, grounding and resourcing, activating the memory, desensitizing the negative belief and negative experience, installing a positive belief, acknowledging body sensations, closure, and re-evaluating.
EMDR uses eye movements, tappers, and tapping to access negative and positive emotions and experiences. There is less talking about the traumatizing event in EMDR therapy, as your brain will do most of the work. EMDR will help change the way your brain processes your triggers. This will help you uncover and help you become less distressed by the painful or traumatic event that happened to you.
EMDR can help children and adults experiencing:
- Anxiety, panic disorders, and phobias
- Abuse and neglect
- Depression
- Pain
- PTSD and other trauma-related issues
- Grief and Loss
- Dissociative Disorders
What to expect during an EMDR session
Your EMDR therapist will begin treatment by listening to your story. They will try to determine where you are getting “suck so they can create a target treatment plan. Then, you will work with your therapist to learn coping techniques to use when you get anxious or overwhelmed.
The specific things you will work on depends on where you are in the 8 phases of EMDR. If you have started the desensitization phase, then you can expect to bring up a traumatizing or triggering even that is connected to the negative belief you are working on. You will go through sets of bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, etc.) while you bring this event to mind. You will talk about what you notice while you go through the bilateral stimulation, and do another set until the level of disturbance decreases. Throughout treatment, your therapist may ask questions like “where do you feel it in your body.” Many times people stop talking about things because it feels like it is too much to deal with. But, EMDR will help you push past these “stuck points” so you can process your feelings and move on to heal. Furthermore, you might not be aware of how these memories are effecting you until start paying attention to it.
Outcomes you can expect from EMDR in Greenwood, IN
The goal of EMDR is to desensitize negative beliefs about yourself or negative experiences. Unfortunately, nothing can make a bad experience good. But, what EMDR does is take that negative experience and make it less powerful in your life. Through the desensitization process, you may have realizations like “it doesn’t really bother me now.” Or, “I can think about it but it doesn’t seem like a big deal.” You may also find that these negative beliefs about yourself were standing in the way of your relationships. Often, these beliefs can be triggered by those we love, and this can cause conflicts. When you are not triggered as easily, it is easier to work through conflicts and keep relationships intact.
Studies on EMDR prove that it is very effective in treating several different mental health concerns. And, we are pleased to report that many of our clients find immediate relief as soon as they begin the first stage of EMDR. While the exact length of treatment varies, EMDR is considered a short term therapeutic approach. If you’re not sure if EMDR is right for you, contact us. During your initial appointment, we will discuss the process and your mental health concerns so you can feel confident in this treatment plan.
Begin EMDR in Greenwood, IN:
Perhaps you have heard about EMDR therapy from a friend or loved one and are curious about it. Or, maybe you’ve tried other types of therapy and had little success. Regardless, of what brings you to our office and makes you interested in EMDR, we would love to discuss this awesome therapeutic technique with you.
To begin EMDR in Greenwood, IN at our counseling clinic, please follow these steps:
- Reach out to our counseling clinic to make an appointment
- Learn more about our counseling practice and our therapy team
- Being EMDR therapy and become unstuck from the things holding you back from happiness.
Other Therapy Services Offered at Renewed Hope Counseling Services
In addition to EMDR, our Greenwood, IN counseling center offers a wide variety of mental health services. Our therapy services include anxiety treatment, depression treatment, trauma treatment and PTSD treatment, counseling for new mothers, perinatal anxiety and mood disorders, couples therapy and marriage counseling, teen counseling, and family therapy. We provide professional EMDR certification and consultations and PMADS consultations. Our therapists offer online therapy in Indiana to treat a variety of mental health concerns when you can’t make it into our counseling clinic. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please contact our counseling clinic.