EMDR Treatment for Childhood Trauma and Current Traumas
Are You Curious About EMDR Treatment?
Do you have trouble regulating your emotions? Are your interpersonal or professional relationships strained? Have you witnessed or been a part of a horrific accident? Have you endure chronic illness or experienced traumatic medical procedures? Did you experience neglect, physical or emotional abuse, or trauma as a child, or were your caregivers addicted to alcohol or drugs? Do you overreact to everyday situations and conflicts that others seem to navigate effortlessly? Do you engage in behaviors that numb your emotions rather than dealing with uncomfortable feelings head-on?
Trauma Can Be Stored in Your Psyche and Your Physical Body
When we think about trauma, we often think about the “Big Ts”: catastrophic events such as rape, violence, war, natural disasters, life-threatening accidents or serious illnesses. These instances are major, often sudden events that uproot life as we know it. They are easily identifiable as traumatic experiences, and as such, there’s often a clear plan of attack when it comes to therapy.
But there are also “little Ts.” Little Ts are much more chronic, complex, “everyday” traumas. Little Ts are much more nuanced and complicated—often, we don’t even realize they are having such a major impact on our everyday lives. More often than not, injuries to early attachment and little Ts are the cause of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, OCD symptoms. Over time, you may have developed coping mechanisms, behavior patterns to deal with these ongoing traumas that once were helpful, are no longer of service but now have has evolved into behavioral patterns that have become a damaging block, or even sabotage your ability to heal. More often than not, unrecognized injuries to early attachment and little Ts are the cause of depression, anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, and OCD symptoms.
Perhaps you come from a dysfunctional family, had an overbearing or absent mother/caregiver, or and have trouble implementing healthy boundaries. You may have ongoing relationship difficulties in your family and personal life, or problems getting along with your coworkers or classmates. Childhood trauma may have impacted your sense of safety and capacity to form close emotional relationships in adulthood, which can lead to feelings of loneliness and isolation. Or maybe you can’t put your finger on exactly why you are melancholy, you just know you don’t feel fully alive.
Trauma—in any form—typically manifests as a sense of disregulation. You may find it difficult to control your emotions and reactions to minor, everyday conflicts. Perhaps you act out emotionally, physically or sexually, but are you not sure why. Or maybe you try to avoid feeling altogether. You may even seek to numb your pain with drugs, alcohol, or other addictive substances. Many people attempt to “turn off” emotions when things start to feel too intense, but just because you may not externally express emotions doesn’t mean they aren’t there, bubbling just below the surface.
Whether “Big” T or “little” T—trauma can keep you in a cycle of unhealthy patterns until the root issues at the source are addressed. Whether or not you consciously realize it, unresolved pain and traumatic experiences from the distant past can directly affect the relationships you have today.
EMDR Therapy Helps Reprocess Traumatic Experiences
Your brain processes the day’s events during REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. Think of your brain as a filing cabinet where all of your memories are filed, stored, and can be recalled at will—some files go into “short-term memory,” some are discarded, some are filed “long-term,” and so on. When we input trauma experiences, however, they often get filed in fragments or sorted into the wrong cabinet. EMDR therapy helps reorganize these memories so you can understand the entire experience from beginning to end.
With the help of bilateral stimulation such as tapping, auditory beeping, and eye movements, traumatic experiences can be reprocessed during EMDR therapy. The right side of the brain—which is in charge of feelings, emotions, and creativity—works in tandem with the left side of the brain, which handles logic and reality. Activating both sides of the brain at once using bilateral stimulation is the critical part of EMDR therapy. This is why it must be done under the care of a licensed professional who has extensive and specific training in EMDR.
EMDR uses some elements of talk therapy, but because it incorporates physical sensations and the internal felt senses, it can be useful for patients who find it difficult to express themselves in words. You can share as much or as little as you want, or you can process your emotions internally without having to articulate painful details out loud. You decide the pace.
EMDR Therapy Can Help Jump-Start the Healing Process
Ideally, EMDR works faster than traditional talk therapy because it quickly and purposefully gets to the core of your “first and/or worst” memories associated with certain negative feelings, then intentionally and gently activates and reprocesses those memories in a very targeted manner. Whereas talk therapy is only about talking; EMDR is about shifting an individual’s perception associated with specific traumas.
EMDR therapy does not work overnight. It can often takes several sessions to treat complex trauma with EMDR therapy. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. Over the course of treatment, however, AF-EMDR therapy also helps builds new neural networks. Physical, psychological, and emotional reactions that were once painful and difficult to face are replaced with positive feelings of safety, love, and protection. It can be physically and mentally draining to access traumatic moments and sit with them, but once that internal shift begins to happen, it is worth it.
EMDR therapy can help you navigate relationships in a new and healthy way. You can establish healthy boundaries and learn to recognize what kinds of behavior are and are not appropriate in your interpersonal and professional relationships. You can cut down on unrealistic expectations and rid yourself of needs that are rooted in dysfunction. Many clients report having more appropriate emotional responses almost immediately. Stress is lessened, negative beliefs are reformulated, and the physical sensations that typically accompany anxiety and depression are decreased, even resolved.
If you’ve tried other kinds of therapy and are looking for deeper, long-lasting results, EMDR therapy may be what you are searching for. Have questions? Email for a free consultation. I’m happy to discuss your specific situation and answer any questions you have about EMDR therapy or my practice.