EMDR Therapy
Do you avoid certain people, places, or experiences because of an old trauma? Do you get startled by sudden noises? Do you experience intense emotions without knowing why?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an effective psychotherapy method to help people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences, including PTSD, anxiety, depression or panic disorders.
When we experience a traumatic event, our nervous systems move to fight, flight or freeze states. In these states, part of our brain shuts down as a defensive and self-protective measure. Because of this shutting down though, memories of the traumatic event get stored in the brain and remain unprocessed and stuck. Our bodies hold onto the stress as though the trauma is still happening. Unprocessed memories can show up as depression, anxiety, panic attacks, addictions and more.
The way EMDR therapy works is to allow the brain to completely process the stressful memories that were frozen during a traumatic event.
EMDR therapy gives you the awareness of where your present issues originated while allowing your brain to finally educate itself that the past is over and done (e.g. you are no longer a vulnerable child and/or the perpetrator is gone and will never bother you). And you may realize that things used to stress you out are no longer stressing you out.