Mindful Counseling, Denver Colorado
Mindful Counseling to Find Joy
EMDR Therapy New
What does trauma look like?
Do you feel a uneasy, anxious, and like something bad is always just around the corner even though your life is good on paper?
Maybe you feel like you always have to protect against something bad happening, so you over work or over commit yourself in order to cover all your bases.
And you’re exhausted from the loneliness of seeming to have it all together on the inside and feeling anxious and on edge on the inside.
Though you may not be thinking about trauma everyday, trauma gets stored in our bodies and can cause us to feel lonely and like we’re never measuring up. EMDR therapy can help.
What is trauma?
Trauma is a distressing or frightening event that causes us to feel unsafe, helpless, or unable to function or cope normally after the event. Sometimes we can heal from traumatic experiences naturally. However, sometimes, our brain can get ‘stuck’ after a trauma and we continue feeling unsafe for many months or years. Many women hold on to trauma, and it can present in many different ways.
Some of us who have experienced trauma feel stuck in our lives. Trauma can make it seem impossible to live in the present moment, connect with others, sleep, hope for the future, or like ourselves. When we have experienced trauma, we often spend a lot of energy trying to push away intrusive thoughts, but we still experience unpleasant memories or nightmares. Additionally, we may also spend a lot of energy trying to preemptively anticipate things falling apart, or being hurt or abandoned. EMDR can support you as you process your experience and help you create a life that isn’t limited by the past.
You can get relief from your trauma without re-living it.
Have you tried traditional talk therapy, but not seen the change you were hoping for? You’ve read all the self-help books, maybe even been to therapy for, and often are acting as the therapist to your friends and co-workers because you know all the things are supposed to help.
And yet, you’re still struggling with internalizing the skills, knowledge, and advice yourself. You wish there was a way to go deeper in your therapeutic process and remove all the blocks and barriers to you making the changes you’ve been wanting for so long. That’s where EMDR comes in.
EMDR
EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. It is an evidenced based modality that can help with PTSD, anxiety, depression, phobias, self esteem, and feeling comfortable in our bodies. Francine Shapiro writes, “A substantial amount of research indicates that adverse life experiences may be the basis for a wide range of psychological and physiologic symptoms. EMDR therapy research has shown that processing memories of such experiences results in the rapid amelioration of negative emotions, beliefs, and physical sensations” (from this article).
While doing EMDR, you will learn about trauma’s effect on our brains and bodies, learn relaxation strategies, and process trauma in a safe space. EMDR therapy has 8 stages: History taking, client preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure and reevaluation.
History Taking
Together, we will discuss your specific trauma symptoms, as well as what trauma looks like. We will compile a brief, non-detailed list of the traumatic events in your life and how disturbing each event is to you. The point of this history taking is not to re-process trauma–rather, it is to give you an idea of what you may want to work on as you begin treatment and how various traumas may be affecting you.
Preparation
Before processing your trauma together, we will make sure you feel safe and supported by practicing using tools to ground your body and mind. We will develop a safe place for you to go to in your mind, and practice some exercises to help you relax your body. We will compile resources that feel helpful for you specifically, and we won’t move on to the next stages until you feel ready.
Assessment
To get started with the re-processing phase, we will learn more about the specific trauma you’d like to work on, negative beliefs you may have about yourself as a result of this trauma, what belief you’d like to have about yourself instead, and how and where you feel disturbance in your body. We will also see if this trauma is linked to past traumas from childhood.
Desensitization
Using what’s called “bilateral, dual attention stimulation,” you will begin to process through the trauma in your body. During online EMDR therapy (for Colorado and Florida residents), you will watch a ball move back and forth across the screen (and/or listen to a sound) as you feel into the sensations in your body. The bilateral stimulation is done in a series of sets that last around 15-30 seconds. After each set of eye movements, you will take a deep breath and say a little about what came up for you during the set. The bilateral stimulation can start to become desensitized to the trauma and store the event as a long term memory that no longer disturbs us.
Installation
Once the memory, belief, or sensation is no longer disturbing to you, we will work on ‘installing’ the positive belief you want to have about yourself into your body using the bilateral dual attention stimulation. We will keep letting this belief grow inside of you until it can’t get any bigger.
Body Scan
Once you are no longer disturbed by the event and you fully believe the positive belief you’d like to have about yourself, you will scan your body for any lingering discomfort, tension, or uncomfortable sensations. If any discomfort remains, we will process through that until it is gone.
Closure
We will complete a ‘mental movie’ and think of a time when you’d like to be able to apply the positive belief in an upcoming situation and process how you’d like to do that. We will discuss how you can manage any thoughts, symptoms or uncomfortable sensations between sessions.
Reevaluation
We will check in on how effective the treatment is for you and the next course of action.
I was trained in EMDR at the Maiberger Institute. Learn more about EMDR by visiting the Maiberger Institute website or the Emdria Website.
If you have questions about EMDR therapy or would like to schedule a free, 20 minute consultation, please reach out.
How does EMDR Therapy work?
During our work together, I’ll guide you through a series of questions to help access difficult experiences and explore what healing might look like for you. We’ll use brief sets of bilateral stimulation, like eye movements or tapping, to help your brain process these experiences. You’ll share any changes you notice along the way as your brain works through the emotions and memories. We’ll continue this process until the distress decreases and you feel a greater sense of calm and positive connection to the experience.
Is online EMDR as effective as in person EMDR therapy?
A lot of people enjoy doing EMDR from the comfort of their own home, where they can have supportive things like pets, loved ones, or favorite objects close by. Online EMDR is just as effective as in-person sessions and in some cases can be even more effective!
I use a HIPAA-compliant platform called Active EMDR. It allows us to set up a visual stimulus on your screen that you can track back and forth to support the process. If you prefer, you can also engage in self-tapping.
Am I a good candidate for EMDR?
EMDR can be adapted in different ways depending on what you’re working through, your current coping skills, and the support you have in place. I always work with any resistant or scared parts of my clients to get them feeling safe and on board before diving head on into processing old trauma.
Even if we don’t dive into full EMDR right away, there are pieces of the process that can still be really helpful.
How do I get started with EMDR Therapy?
We’ll begin with a free 20-minute consultation to meet and see how we connect.
I believe the connection between therapist and client is key to meaningful therapy. If either of us feels it’s not the right fit, I’ll be happy to share referrals to help you find someone who is.
If we do decide to work together, we’ll schedule a 50-minute initial session and take it from there!
How long does EMDR therapy take?
The length of EMDR therapy really depends on your unique needs and goals. I’ve worked with trauma survivors for both shorter periods (6–8 sessions) and longer-term work (20+ sessions). Most people feel some relief in 6-8 EMDR therapy sessions.
Approaches like EMDR and IFS often help people find relief faster than traditional talk therapy.
Some clients come to address a specific event and may finish therapy in a shorter timeframe, while others prefer ongoing support to process multiple traumas or to have a safe space to return to when life feels overwhelming or triggering. It’s all about what works best for you.
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