EMDR Therapy

Deborah Cox Psychologist, Therapist, EMDR Therapist,EMDR (eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing) therapy focuses on trauma. Developed in the late 1980s, EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (like eye movements, auditory tones, or tactile pulses) to help the nervous system integrate and metabolize lots of information very quickly. In essence, it jump-starts your brain, and entire body really, to stitch together many, many fragmented pieces of trauma memory.

Why does this help?

First, disturbing things happen to all of us. We don’t always think we’ve been traumatized – in fact, we often downplay our feelings about negative events. But if something sticks with us, triggers negative beliefs about ourselves (e.g., “I’m a failure”), there’s some level of trauma there. But that sort of memory (e.g., “what happened that night”) doesn’t always get stored like everyday memory. It’s often splattered throughout the nervous system in the form of anxiety, anger, shame, and thoughts about ourselves that feel miserable.

EMDR takes these splattered bits of memory and pulls them into a coherent whole. Quickly . . . Sometimes before a client even realizes it. When bits of trauma, like thoughts and emotions, are integrated in this way, they lose their power to make us panic or hate ourselves – the anxiety drops out of them and the memories can simply be filed away.

EMDR is a whole-body process, yet is non-invasive and gentle. And EMDR can be used to treat everything from panic attacks to relationship problems. I even use it to help students, professionals, and artists do better at the things they love to do.

 

EMDR THERAPY BLOGS

When Anger Corrodes: Anger Wisdom, Part XXII

When anger corrodes. Wait, does it? How can you tell when your anger morphs from a moment of clarity and self-protection to something else entirely? Anger has its destructive side . . . at least Ursula K. Le Guin believes it does. I reserve the right, at the end of...

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Exiting a Sick System: Anger Wisdom, Part XIX

How does anger help us exit sick systems? Anger helps us exit sick systems. How? Anger allows information processing, because it is a part of the learning curve. So, let’s look at how anger facilitates timely exit when we need it. First, sick systems tend to have...

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Sixteen Truths About Anger: Anger Wisdom, Part IV

16 Anger Truths This list of anger truths comes from my own and other people's research, as well as my nearly 30 years in the mental health industry. I'll be back soon to discuss each item here. For today, I want to put the list in front of you. It matters to me, as a...

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