Our brains have a natural way of storing memories in a healthy way. However, when we experience traumatic moments, our brains (thank goodness) go into survival mode and are not able to store the memory effectively. That’s why trauma can feel so fresh and like it’s happening now. Our bodies feel like it IS happening now because our brains weren’t able to store the memory effectively.

Everyone has been through trauma of some sort—whether it’s a criticism a parent made that had a profound effect on you, a loss, or even abuse. EMDR is designed to address a wide range of those traumatic experiences without requiring you to discuss them in depth.

EMDR helps brains that have been affected by trauma process the traumatic memory and store them effectively, like any other memory, creating distance, integrating new positive beliefs about yourself, and releasing the power this memory has on you. While you’ll never approve of the trauma, you can be free from it. Human nervous systems are experientially built and experientially edited. We create a present moment experience that will neurologically challenge the emotional learning of your past.

If your trauma taught you that you are unloveable, we create a moment where you feel deeply loved, and KABOOM! Your brain realizes these two experiences can’t both be true and reconsolidates the traumatic memory, integrating the feeling of being loved.

Individual therapy tends to be 50 minutes per week, because this is what insurance covers and is good practice for talk therapy. In individual therapy, it’s expected to need time between sessions to practice coping skills and strategies discussed in session to implement in real life. EMDR is actually designed to be done in longer chunks, because with trauma processing, the more time you have, the deeper you can go and the more you can achieve. You can certainly do EMDR in individual therapy, but in the time it takes to get settled into therapy, discuss the events/stressors of the week, and wind down by the end of the appointment, EMDR processing can be shortchanged. Individual therapy is also more relational in nature, where an intensive is more outcome-focused.

For research on EMDR intensives, click here

You are:

• Ready to do deep work

• feeling stuck in your current therapy

• Wanting to make therapeutic gains and don’t have a lot of time

• Ready for relief, fast

You are not:

• Experiencing a mental health crisis (intensives are not a substitute for crisis services)

• Actively in a suicide crisis (if you are, please contact your local crisis line)

• Traumatic or distressing memories

• Anxiety related to driving, air travel, or performance

• Grief/Loss

• Phobias

• Anxious or Avoidant attachment styles

• Low self-esteem

• Childhood trauma

• Chronic pain/Tinnitus

• Witnessing or experiencing assault or violent acts

• Stress reduction

• Life transitions (Job loss, Relationship loss, etc.)

• Uncovering the reason for getting activated in situations now that don’t make sense anymore

• Performance Enhancement

EMDR has no homework. That said, you can prepare in the following ways:

• Make sure you have a space free from distractions, with privacy, and with a good internet connection when you take the session.

• If you want to bring any comfort items to the session, such as a weighted blanket, tea, essential oils, or whatever feels right to you, please do so.

• I also recommend not using mind-altering substances in the 24-hour period before and after the session, as your brain will continue to process and re-consolidate information in that time.

• Bring a clear sense of 1-3 goals you would like to target in the session

• If you so choose, bring a journal, and journal about what you notice after the appointment

Yes! I guide you through the process and it is all about you noticing your own internal experience. Studies have been done that indicate online EMDR is just as effective as in-person EMDR.

Click the link below to schedule your free, 20-minute consultation to see if we are a good fit. If we are, we can schedule then and there! If none of the consult times available work for you, email me at hello@emmabridgeslcsw.com and I’ll be sure to get you in.