EMDR was initially developed to treat symptoms associated with trauma. In response to traumatic events, the brain floods our systems with stress hormones, creating any number of debilitating symptoms.
Increasingly the mental health community has come to understand that even commonplace threats to safety and security, to important relationships, and to self-esteem have a less dramatic but nonetheless traumatizing effect on a growing child. When the child is chronically overwhelmed by worry, fear, hurt, etc., the nervous system “adapts” by maintaining a state of vigilance toward the anticipated emotional threat, diverting energy from healthy development. In adulthood, the vigilance may persist, or may give way to an apparent overreaction to relevant triggers.
Let’s take a common and relatively minor example (oversimplified for illustrative purposes), such as feeling devalued by one’s boss. Feeling valued and appreciated for one’s efforts is a basic human need. People who felt undervalued in childhood are likely to be sensitive to signs of devaluation in adulthood and will react intensely when the childhood memory (or felt experience) of devaluation gets triggered. Some people, for example, might work tirelessly, trying to prove themselves to their boss. Others might be kept awake at night by the fear of being fired. Still others might get caught in anger at the boss, or even at the world, for failing to recognize their worth. And some might succumb to self-criticism or self-doubt, withdrawing into a shell, falling into depression, or generally self-sabotaging.
The more a person reacts in their characteristic way to a trigger such as devaluation, the more the brain gets stuck in that reaction. Even a person who is healthy and prospering in many ways can seem childlike, irrational or unhinged when triggered. Some psychotherapy patients make significant overall progress in treatment, but nonetheless stall or spin their wheels in response to the triggers that were most damaging to them in childhood. Like a tow truck yanking a stuck car out of mud or snow, EMDR lifts the brain out of its rut.
EMDR is a safe, non-intrusive, and highly efficient supplement to psychotherapy. As patients get unstuck from their customary ways of responding to triggers, their perspective on the interpersonal world opens up. They begin to see others, including their parents and other authority figures, with more subtlety and nuance. I am delighted to be able to offer this healing modality to my clients if or when they need it.
For more information about EMDR and to find certified EMDR specialists, please see the following resources:
The website for the EMDR International Association: www.emdria.org/
The website for the Parnell Institute (for Attachment-Focused EMDR): www.parnellemdr.com/
If you like to discuss how EMDR can help you please contact me.
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