You’re not sure what’s going on with you, but you definitely notice that something is wrong.
Maybe it’s something from your past that you never dealt with that keeps intruding on your current life.
Thoughts about the incident, even if it happened years ago, still might come up out of the blue.
The dreams and nightmares about the event may not happen every night, but they happen enough that you notice them. There might be nights where you lay in bed just trying to get some sleep.
Sometimes it seems like no time has past since the event, and you can almost swear that it’s happening again right in front of your eyes.
Some days it’s so hard to concentrate that it feels like you can’t get anything accomplished.
You notice you are avoiding people, places, or things that remind you of the incident more often.
Maybe you’ve begun avoiding things so much it’s leaving you feeling cut off from the people and things you used to enjoy. You might not even enjoy the things you used to anymore.
You may be feeling overwhelming fear when you think about the incident or feeling that scared, hopeless, or helpless again. Maybe you are drinking or eating more than you used to so you don’t have to feel those heavy feelings anymore.
Most days, the idea that this happened to you can lead to anger, disbelief, irritability, or just shutting down.
Anxiety has become a constant friend.
You want to reach out for help to the people that you love, but while they listen, they don’t seem to understand how to help you. It’s putting a strain on your relationship because everyone thinks you should just get over it. Maybe you think that too, but you just don’t know how.
EMDR can help.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of therapy that helps people to heal from past troubling life events, whether it be a car accident or childhood abuse. EMDR has been shown to help people experience the benefits of therapy that used to take much longer to achieve. It doesn’t have to take years for you to see a difference.
EMDR therapy shows that the mind can heal from psychological trauma in much the same way as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.
EMDR therapy shows us that the same thing can happen with your mental processes. Our brains have a natural way to recover from hurtful memories and events. The brain’s information processing system wants to be healthy. When a disturbing event happens and isn’t processed properly, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes. Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, you can activate their natural healing processes.
The great part about EMDR is that you do not have to spend months and months talking about the distressing things that brought you into therapy. EMDR therapy, rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors resulting from the distressing issue, allows the brain to resume its natural healing process.
EMDR has been shown to be helpful for children and adults of all ages. EMDR has been used to treat a range of other challenges also, including:
Call us today to find out how EMDR can help you to move past the things holding you back and to embrace the life you want.
We’ll learn about your needs and recommend one of our specialized therapists.
