EMDR Therapy for Complex Trauma in Newtown and online throughout Pennsylvania
Are you noticing feeling like you’re in fight or flight mode, even when you’re supposed to be relaxing?
Have you tried talk therapy for years and not seen much relief for the trauma you’ve experienced?
Are you struggling with negative beliefs about yourself or the world?
EMDR can help.
What is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
This therapy technique involves using bilateral stimulation to help your brain heal from overwhelming memories and trauma.
While briefly focusing on a difficult memory, your therapist will help you engage in a rhythmic pattern. This pattern could be following a therapist’s finger from side to side with your eyes, listening to alternating tones in headphones, or feelings gentle alternating taps on your hands. This bilateral movement keeps you grounded in your body and in the moment, creating a sense of safety and allowing your brain to work through tough emotions.
The focus of EMDR is about helping your brain to re-process how these memories are stored. The rhythmic movement mimics REM sleep (dreaming) which is your brain’s natural processing state. By recreating that state, we can allow your brain to re-process without having to spend hours talking through every detail of a painful or traumatic event.
What can EMDR help with?
EMDR helps your brain re-process how memories and beliefs are stored. It can help address many issues including:
Treatment for trauma and PTSD: EMDR can be used to re-process childhood trauma, traumatic single events, long-term abuse, etc. in a way that offers safety and grounding to confront uncomfortable memories.
Changing harmful self-beliefs: EMDR can help you to replace negative internal thoughts with healthy and realistic ones
Lowering physical pain: EMDR can help to remove the physical distress that is felt in the body connected with upsetting memories, allowing you to quiet the past.
ADHD and neurodivergence: EMDR can be extremely beneficial in helping to increase emotional regulation, steady the nervous system, reduce task paralysis, calm rejection sensitivity, and help to change negative self-beliefs that may have developed over time.
EMDR is increasingly being used to treat anxiety, panic attacks, grief, phobias, and performance anxiety, as well.