Four Letters, Big Reward
EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
Let me tell you a little story……
March 24, 2017, I found my husband non-responsive in bed. His face was contorted, his hands were clenched, his lips were blue. He had suffered cardiac arrest. After 12 minutes of CPR the first responders arrived and took over life saving activities. 45 minutes later they transported him to the emergency room where he coded another 3 times. After placing a stent, the doctors told me to go home and get some rest as he would be sedated the next 24 hours.
I went home. I suffered from “adrenaline overload” where my body was flooded with adrenaline due to the fight or flight response I had the last few hours. I tried to close my eyes but every time I did all I could see was my dear husbands arrested face. I knew that the traumatic event I had just experienced overloaded my brain and this memory was stuck and stored in a dysfunctional way. I needed help and I knew EMDR would do the trick.
EMDR was developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. after she received some distressing health reports. She was taking a walk in the park and noticed that things became less distressing when she moved her eyes rapidly from side to side. She tested her theory that bilateral stimulation or eye movements assist the brain in processing and resolving traumatic memories and other distressing experiences. EMDR was born.
EMDR: Bilateral Stimulation to free up stuck memories
EMDR was first used on war veterans for PTSD but as it developed it has been proven to work for anyone with a distressing experience or memory. Often times these distressing times cause our brain to clog up in processing and Dr. Shapiro found that we can scientifically help our brain to put everything in proper order.
So, I called my therapist friend and asked her to bring her tappers to the hospital the next morning and allow me to process the disturbing image. The tappers provide bi-lateral stimulation, buzzing in one hand and then the other, which tells the brain to mimic rapid eye movement, which is the brains way of processing the days events and emotions. After about 20 minutes of processing the image of my husbands arrested face was gone. My brain put it in a safe place and to this day I can not bring up that image. I am free!
Have you ever felt anxious for no good reason or placed a negative thought about a current event where it doesn’t belong? Maybe when you are getting ready to go to a social event you have the thought “I don’t matter” and negative self conscious reared its ugly head. Or you have a conflict with your spouse and think to yourself “no matter what I do its not good enough”. Would you be surprised if I told you that EMDR can take the “I don’t matter” or “I’m not good enough” and change those into “I do matter” and “I am good enough”.
It’s time for you to get free from a clogged up brain and reprocess events that will allow you to be FREE! This isn’t voodoo or psychobabble stuff. EMDR taps into your brains natural way of processing that just got stuck along the way.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO TALK ABOUT IT!!!
That’s one of the draws of EMDR. Its a passive process. You are just the vessel, I am just the support person and your brain does the rest. No need to rehash old wounds by verbally processing. As a matter of fact, I don’t need to know much about the distressing event to lead you through the desensitization and reprocessing. Your brain has all it needs to do the work itself.
What do you say? Time to get unstuck? Lets book your appointment today and start the journey towards freedom!
