Is EMDR Therapy Right for You?
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Orlando Therapist Explain if EMDR Therapy is Right for You
Do you notice your emotional reaction does not fit the situation and no matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to rein it in? Are you constantly on guard and anxious, expecting the worst? Or do you keep getting into unhealthy relationships, no matter how many times you promise yourself you’ll never do that again?
As Anxiety therapists, we use EMDR Therapy to treat the above issues and more
Lately, we’ve been getting a lot of calls and folks are asking, “Do you think EMDR Therapy is a good fit for me?” Our answer is usually a resounding, “Yes!” If you’re feeling stuck, EMDR Therapy can help. Below are 6 common scenarios where folks feel stuck and EMDR Therapy can offer help and healing.
1. You have been in talk therapy for years.
You’ve been in therapy for a while now and you’re ready to go to the next level in your healing journey. You’ve gone as far as you can go in terms of talking things out and you’re ready to move to the next phase, healing the root cause of your struggles. EMDR therapy will help you move to a deeper place of healing that goes beyond talk therapy.
2. Your reactions don’t seem to fit the situation.
Oftentimes your emotions don’t match the situation. Even though you know your reactions don’t fit the situation, you feel compelled to react the way you do. The insight of knowing your reactions doesn’t exactly fit the situation makes you feel even worse because then you feel ashamed of your reactions.
EMDR therapy will help make the connections between what you know to be true and how you’re reacting. It will help desensitize your triggers and reactions so that you can show up in the world based on what you know to be true for you.
3. You expect the worst.
It seems like you're consistently anticipating the worst possible thing to happen. It’s like you live your life waiting for the next shoe to drop. You’re living in a trauma response where your brain and body remain hypervigilant against the worst possible outcome.
EMDR Therapy will help you heal the past so that your brain and the body aren’t constantly prepped and ready for the next negative thing to happen.
It works to heal those wounds so that you are freed up to experience the world as it is (in safety) rather than like there’s a danger lurking around every corner.
4. You are constantly anxious.
You feel like the gas pedal of your nervous system is stuck on “on” and you seem to ‘live’ in the fight, flight, or flee survival response. Your nervous system reacts as if you are in danger rather than being in safe mode. EMDR Therapy can target anxiety and decrease it so that your nervous system is no longer being triggered into anticipating danger.
4. You’re ready to heal toxic relationship patterns.
You find yourself repeating unhealthy relationship patterns and stuck in toxic relationships, whether it is in the romance department, with friends and family, or at work. It seems like. you just can’t seem to shake the anger, overwhelm, and anxiety that comes with being close to people.
EMDR Therapy will help you by going into the past and healing the wounds that came from the relationships with your earliest caregivers. Sometimes the woundings in those relationships aren’t, what we call, big T traumas. They’re subtle. Sometimes it’s not about what happened in those relationships, but rather, what didn’t happen. EMDR Therapy will help you go to the root of those unhealthy relationships and heal the wounds from the past that keep showing up in your relationships.
5. You have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms.
You experience PTSD symptoms as intrusive memories of a disturbing event, avoidance of anything related to the disturbing event, negative changes in your thinking and/or mood, or changes in your physical and/or emotional reactions. EMDR Therapy can heal the trauma at the root so that the symptoms you experience will subside.
6. You have experienced a recent trauma.
You’ve recently experienced an event such as a car accident, a natural disaster, witnessed a violent event, or had major surgery or injury and you want to get ahead of the PTSD symptoms before they set in. EMDR Therapy for a recent event is effective for preventing long-term PTSD symptoms.
What is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy?
EMDR therapy is helpful in decreasing and eliminating trauma symptoms so that people can stop reacting as if they are currently in emotional or physical danger. The brain is wired for survival, so when someone has experienced multiple difficult, disturbing, or traumatic events in the past, the brain begins to anticipate danger in day-to-day experiences.
EMDR therapy is a phase-oriented therapy that first focuses on developing individual resources and cultivating safety in the therapeutic relationship. EMDR therapy is designed to resolve unprocessed difficult or traumatic events. It focuses on how the difficult events from the past are impacting your body, emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. The bilateral tapping, tones, and/or eye movements help the brain and the body’s natural healing process so that disturbing elements from the past are not impeding the present.
We’ve written about EMDR therapy in greater detail on our website. If you'd like to learn more, please check out Types of Counseling: What is EMDR?.
Why is EMDR Therapy Helpful?
When a disturbing event occurs, it can get locked in the brain and the body with original pictures, sounds, thoughts, feelings, and body sensations, which are primarily in the right brain. When something comes along and reminds us of a past event, consciously or subconsciously, our brains and bodies start to react as if the scary or difficult event is happening now. It’s like the brain and body can’t tell the past is behind us.
The left part of the brain is more cognitive and rational and might be able to acknowledge that the reaction doesn’t seem to fit the situation, but in the wake of trauma or difficult events, the left and right brains aren’t communicating properly, so the right brain will continue to flood the system with the trauma response: intense emotions, body sensations, hypervigilance, anxiety, fear, and so on...
This is where EMDR Therapy comes in to help. The bilateral stimulation in EMDR (eye movements, tapping, tones) helps the right and left brain communicate and process the difficult events from the past, so your nervous system can stop responding as if you are in danger today.
Ready to Start EMDR therapy Orlando?
At Mindful Living Counseling Orlando, all of our therapists are trained in EMDR Therapy, as we specialize in trauma, anxiety, and healing toxic relationship patterns.
Fill out our New Client Consultation Form
Schedule a consultation call with our Client Care Coordinator
Start your journey of EMDR Therapy
Not Quite Ready for EMDR Therapy Orlando?
Our highly trained team will help you gain tools that will help you overcome any anxiety may be feeling to help you navigate life again. If you’re not ready, we understand. Take all the time you need and reach out when you’re ready.
Additional Resources for EMDR Therapy
EMDR Therapy Orlando for a Recent Trauma
Orlando Therapist Explains How EMDR Therapy Works
Orlando Therapist Explains What to Expect in EMDR Therapy
Types of Counseling: What is EMDR?
Orlando Therapist Answers the Question - What is EMDR Therapy?
About the Owner of Mindful Living Counseling
As an Orlando Therapist, Lauran Hahn, LMHC, specializes in working with clients struggling with anxiety. She also specializes in boundaries and supporting her clients in healing from toxic relationships. Lauran works to help her clients feel calm in their bodies, at peace in their minds, and connected in relationships.