emdr:
EMDR is an evidence-based treatment that is highly effective in processing trauma and recovering from abuse, emotional neglect, and early attachment deficits. It can also be incredibly helpful for moving through creative blocks and enhancing performance.
EMDR activates both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously, allowing for a deeper level of processing and insight. Every time we revisit a traumatic memory in an emotionally vivid way we have the chance to transform the emotional and somatic content of that memory. In EMDR we give ourselves, through our imagination, what we actually needed at the time of the trauma; be it protection, nurturance, or the ability to defend ourselves or speak our truth. As the previously traumatic memory goes back to long-term storage it re-consolidates with a new emotional tone; for example a sense of helplessness may be replaced by feelings of empowerment, a state of terrible aloneness may transform into a warm, protected sense of togetherness. In this way the pockets of pain from the past receive the healing they have long been awaiting. Our internal resources are then naturally re-assigned from the energy depleting task of hyper-vigilance for triggers that could re-activate old traumas, to a full-bodied engagement with life and a renewed capacity for exploration, spontaneity, joy and connection.
I incorporate EMDR only after developing a base of safety and a solid relational foundation, going at a pace that feels right for my clients.
I completed my level 1, 2, and 3 trainings in Attachment Focused EMDR with Constance Kaplan and Kim Cookson and trained with Laurel Parnell at the 2017 Parnell Institute Conference.