EMDR Trauma Counseling

Something bad may have happened to you.  This could be a one time event, or ongoing situation.  It may be as “big” as rape, murder, living in an abusive home, or as “small” as witnessing something scary.  There are countless ways the world can purposefully, or accidentally harm us, publicly or privately.  We often think time heals all wounds and that we’ll get over it. 

Unfortunately that doesn’t always happen.  And sadly, even if we’re able to lock away the memories, or tell ourselves it wasn’t THAT big a deal and to “stop over-reacting”, our bodies and brains don’t forget.  We may act unusual, be more agitated, have new ways of viewing the world, or feel somewhat normal until something happens and then a little monster comes out.  Maybe you start yelling at your kids.  Or you become really obsessed with work to the point you don’t even care that your family needs you at home.  Things you used to love become annoying.  There are an infinite number of ways you may just not quite feel right, but you don’t necessarily associate it with the trauma you experienced.  Sometimes trauma happens with a life event, like having a new baby,  so you figure this is just the new reality of your life.  You excuse it away until you finally have had enough.  You want you back.

There is a way to work through the trauma without having to simply talk about it.  After all, maybe you did a lot of talking and nothing changed.  The process, called EMDR, lets your body and brain release the trauma.  After therapy, you don’t have to work at not being agitated, or remember to not yell at your kids.  It’s not a “skill building” process. 

It won’t even occur to you to act that way because your body and brain get realigned to the way they used to be before the trauma.  Often you feel even better than before because you’ve got new insights and a sense of control again.  It’s a great form of therapy for those who don’t want to talk about what happened in detail, for those who are really insightful about what happened but still feel stuck in the “muck” of negative thoughts or actions, or those who don’t want to spend years in psychotherapy.  

Although not always, EMDR can be fast with long-term results.