EMDR Therapy in Tampa
Trauma can leave you feeling stuck - haunted by painful memories, overwhelmed with fear and anxiety, and weighed down by negative beliefs. EMDR can help you heal from the past and move forward with a greater sense of peace, clarity, and confidence.
What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a specialized type of therapy that helps people heal from trauma and painful life experiences by reprocessing memories. It is recognized as an evidence-based treatment for trauma and PTSD by the World Health Organization, American Psychological Association, and International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. EMDR uses dual attention bilateral stimulation (usually eye movements, but sometimes tactical taps or auditory tones) to help activate the brain’s information processing system and allow memories to be processed more adaptively.
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EMDR utilizes a three pronged approach:
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Reprocessing painful memories (the past)
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Addressing current triggers (the present)
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Identifying desired responses for potential challenges (the future)
What Issues Can Be Treated with EMDR Therapy?
While EMDR is most commonly associated with healing trauma, it’s also helpful for:
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Anxiety and panic attacks
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Depression
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Phobias and fears
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Grief and loss
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Chronic pain
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Low self-worth or negative self-beliefs
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OCD and intrusive thoughts
How Does EMDR Work?
Just like our bodies can heal from physical injuries, our minds can also heal from psychological wounds. In the case of a physical injury like a cut, your body responds by sending blood cells to close the wound. But if something blocks that healing like repeated injury or a foreign object, the wound may become irritated and have difficulties healing properly until the blockage is removed. EMDR shows that a similar pattern happens with emotional healing. The brain is wired towards mental health, but a distressing event or trauma can cause a kind of blockage. These painful memories can get “stuck” in the brain and cause distress. EMDR helps remove the blockage, so that the natural healing process can resume.
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Trauma is stored differently in the brain, so the brain has difficulty metabolizing it. With EMDR, we recreate the memory to help reprocess it through the brain and move it along the “emotional sewage network” to activate the natural healing process. It is similar to the mechanisms of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep that help process the residue from the day. EMDR moves the trauma from the limbic system (emotional part of the brain) to the neocortex (the higher-level cognitive functioning part of the brain) to help the mind reprocess it. It’s your own brain that does the healing.
