EMDR
It isn’t that you have a negative attitude…
You’re a grateful and positive person.
But certain feelings just won’t resolve.
You’ve tried many approaches. But sorrow keeps coming up along with some other feelings.
This perplexes you at times because the situations to which the sorrow is attached have been resolved and released in your mind.
You’re wondering: Am I not who I thought I was?
David* loves his life, work, and wife.
Yet sorrow from a different time and relationship keeps welling up.
He doesn’t wish to resume that long-past relationship. So, he is confused about his emotions.
David has felt disappointed in himself and even guilty over this, but cannot control it.
He really wants to focus fully on his current life without this internal disruption.
Trauma lives in the body.
Our bodies store profound emotions from experiences that were, in some way, traumatic.
Trauma doesn’t have to be someone dying or anything that we might think of as severe. Anything that leads to immense emotion at some time, or to buried emotion, can register as trauma in the brain or body months, years, and decades later.
The body and brain can take a long time to catch up with the intention, values, and focus of someone whose life has moved on well.
EMDR is a relaxing practice, done with a therapist. This practice, involving eye movement, finally allows our body and brain memories to empty out, so that our experience aligns with our true values and intentions.
How EMDR helps you heal…
Watching a pen, your eyes will move from side to side. This forces you into a state similar to deep sleep, when you can process emotions.
Each night, while we sleep, we digest any little unfinished emotional business from the day. More intense experiences don’t digest. EMDR causes the experiences to occur now.
You will stop your eye movement numerous times during the process and be asked to share what you’re feeling and thinking. Of course, you always choose how much or how little you wish to share.
As simple as this process sounds, the effects are life-altering. Old anguish is replaced with new peace.
Finally, you can move on internally, the way you thought you had long ago. Embarrassment, shame, and guilt are alleviated as you come to understand that the body and brain cannot keep up with one’s values and intentions without some in-depth help, when background trauma is involved.
What healing looks like…
You can expect to feel lighter, re-find lost motivation that has been hidden under grief, and receive new and working support from God, The Universe, Source Creator, or your Higher Power, depending on your beliefs. We can also bring Christ into the healing process.
Each session, we will engage in exercises that help you unwind old hurts naturally, so that self-love and God’s love can be felt. This tends to enhance love with everyone close in our life! In fact, your relationships will likely benefit greatly.
In my online practice, I create a calm, open space inspired by the ease and warmth I carried with me from Hawaii. Here, you can slow down, reconnect with a sense of peace and self-trust, and begin to restore what has been worn down.
Healing happens, and as we complete this work together, you move forward with greater confidence, steadiness, and the ability to navigate your own path safely.
Take the first step toward relief.
EMDR can help you gently, at your own pace, move through past experiences that continue to affect you today.
You don’t have to know exactly where to begin – only that something needs to change.
Healing starts with a conversation. Call (831) 477-7007 today to schedule your free consultation.
*The above name and story are fictionalized composites of real clients I’ve supported.