Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing

EMDR is an evidence-based treatment for trauma that is very effective in helping clients to process and reduce the symptoms associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  Its application goes beyond just PTSD, but also to situations where one is reacting disproportionately to the situation.  Whether they are feelings of fear, anger, shame, loss, or another feelings that may be due to a past negative experience, rather than the current situation, EMDR can be effective. One theory is that trauma or negative experience becomes wired in the brain so that it feels like the event has just happened the other day even when it may have happened many years ago.  When the trauma is processed, it is integrated with the rest of the neural system and the fight or flight symptoms that go along with PTSD or that leads to the reactivity are diminished. EMDR works with many traumas such as the loss of a loved one, a sexual assault, child abuse, near death experiences, car accidents, phobias, and many other problems.  EMDR is also used to process less catestrophic traumas, but traumas none the less that may be causing one to be reacting with anxiety or anger (that fight or flight response).  

I integrate parts work and IFS with trauma therapy. Parts work therapy is precisely what it sounds like – a therapeutic approach designed to help patients deal with the different parts of themselves created through chronic trauma, eventually bringing a sense of peace and wholeness to the person. For instance, a therapist might have us begin working through a particularly traumatic memory. Part of us might want the release and relief offered by working through it, but another part interferes with the process to protect us from the threatening emotions that will arise. Most people have different parts of themselves. This does not mean that we have multiple personalities or that everyone suffers from structural dissociation. For instance, when we make a mistake doing something, the voice of our inner critic could sound like a disapproving family member from our past. The critic is part of us, but it is also that family member’s voice, and can also feel separate from the part making the mistake. Chronic trauma is often held within specific parts of ourselves – usually, a “younger” self that is roughly the same emotional age as we were when the trauma occurred. Parts work therapy strives to resolve those memories and ease the emotional burdens, by erasing the lines between the different “parts” of ourselves. Parts work is usually integrated into a specific therapeutic approach. IFS and EMDR are two popular approaches that can both accommodate parts work.