Trauma and EMDR
Feeling overwhelmed, lost or “over emotional”?
Your emotions feel “out of control.” You find yourself reacting intensely to the world around you and you have trouble understanding why. Your sleep is disturbed and frequented by nightmares or distressing dreams.
Psychological trauma occurs when an overwhelming and intense outside force assaults our internal, psychological sense of control, connection and meaning. Traumatic events occur externally but quickly become an internal psychological problem when we are rendered powerless and helpless.
Is This Trauma?
It is not uncommon for your intense feelings of depression, anxiety or panic to be related to a traumatic event or events. Trauma is an experienced phenomenon. Every individual will react differently to events in their lives. There are no absolutes.
Years ago, I treated a highly educated and successful woman who came to see me for anxiety symptoms she felt were getting in the way of her relationship with her husband.
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In our third session together, I asked if anything bad had happened to her. Her quick initial reaction was “no, nothing really.”
Then after a brief pause, she related how she had been raped years before and never told anyone. It became quickly evident that this traumatic experience that she had been holding was the root of her anxiety.
With specialized training in the assessment and treatment of psychological trauma, I can help you find ways to not only cope with the disturbing thoughts and memories, but process them in proven ways so you can feel more like yourself, more in control and more relief.
EMDR – a proven option with so many uses
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) is a mode of therapy to help you better cope with disturbing emotions.
These can be from traumatic experiences or from just being stuck in old memories and feelings.
I am happy to provide EMDR treatment protocols in service of my clients. While EMDR was designed specifically with the trauma client in mind, EMDR can also be used to help client process anxiety, depression and phobias.