EMDR Therapy

A transformational experience of healing past wounds and traumas.

Instead of traditional talk therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) uses simple movements that allow your brain to process trauma so you're no longer held back by negative self-beliefs.

The perspective in EMDR is that these negative beliefs are not objectively true, but are learned through experience. If we can identify these past experiences, the moments that taught you a negative conclusion about yourself, then we can rewrite the old conclusion.

We do this rewriting through exercises involving eye movements, which is similar to what happens during our REM sleep. This is the part of our sleep cycle when our brain processes and stores our memories from the previous day, so we can recall them without distress when we wake up.

Similarly in EMDR we process the negative or traumatic memory so that the distress is reduced.

Your brain wants to do this. It's geared to recover from trauma, so long as it has the opportunity to do so.

EMDR therapy has helped people with some of the most severe traumas, including war and abuse. These are called Big T traumas, although many of us also experience the Little T traumas. These are less severe, but they can still hold us back in significant ways and contribute to other kinds of mental health disorders.

EMDR is a kind of journey you can take, where you are essentially rewriting your past.

Of course we can never change our memories, but we can change what they taught us about ourselves. For those who have ended up in unhealthy patterns due to negative beliefs about themselves, such as toxic relationships or behaviors, this can be truly transformational.

Do you need to have PTSD to do EMDR?