Insight Counseling Center

   ....healing from within

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Insight Counseling Center utilizes EMDR if the therapist feels you are a candidate and that it will help to accelerate your treatment. Below are some of the frequently asked questions regarding EMDR with responses provided from the EMDR International Association website, http://emdria.org

What is EMDR?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a powerful psychotherapeutic practice initially developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980's to treat troubling symptoms of trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. It has been used worldwide since then to help clients come to terms with a wide variety of troubling conditions and problems. It is used within a comprehensive treatment approach to accelerate the treatment of a wide range of clinical issuesIt is used at the Insight Counseling Center with psychotherapeutic treatment to more quickly resolve of many life disabling problems, emotions and thoughts.

What Problems are Helped with EMDR?

EMDR is the most researched form of psychotherapy to date regarding posttraumatic stress disorder, and its results have proven to be effective and long lasting.  It has also been successfully used to help clients with:

How Does EMDR Help to Resolve Problems?

People have the inborn ability to process disturbing events and feelings. In most instances, the brain reprocesses painful information over time so that it is stored in our normal memory system without any symptoms. In normal circumstances, the individual can access memories without being unduly stressed. However, there are instances in which the brain becomes overwhelmed and isn't able to process the memory in an adaptive way. The memory seems to become frozen" in our mind, and the painful images, thoughts and feelings associated with the event seem to be "locked" in the nervous system, often out of conscious awareness. These memories then have a lasting negative effect; influencing the way we see the world, react to everyday situations, and relate to others.

Whether the traumatic experience is physical or psychological, if it is so overwhelming, you may freeze or disconnect from the experience. This protects you from the terror you feel, but it also prevents you from moving on. These feelings stay outside of your conscious awareness in their original intensity.

EMDR helps to unlock painful and negative memories, and helps the brain to more effectively reprocess old information so that it becomes less debilitating. The use of bilateral stimulation of the brain via eye movements and sound allows for a resumption of the normal reprocessing so that images, sounds, thoughts, and feelings can be experienced without undue upset and disorganization.

Does EMDR Work With Children?

Yes, EMDR can work for children's issues also.  EMDR can be used with children of all ages.  EMDR has been used successfully with very young children, as well as with teens who do not want to talk out loud about the upsetting issues. As with any intervention, the younger the child or the more avoidant the child, the more challenging it is to find ways to engage them and focus their attention on the problem at hand.  However, EMDR has been used sucessfully to help children deal with traumatic events, depression, anxiety, phobias, and other behavioral problems. Just as with adults, the EMDR process is different for each child, because the healing process is guided from within. Some children report that EMDR is relaxing and have an immediate positive response. Other children may feel tired at the end of a session, and the benefit from the treatment comes in the days to follow. (EMDR and Children: A Guide for Parents, Professionals, and Others Who Care About Children, emdria.org)

WHAT IS TRAUMA

Some people are resilient, others are devastated by experiences that, on the surface, appear to be less upsetting. It’s not the objective facts, but your subjective emotional experience of the event. The more endangered, helpless, and unprepared you feel, the more likely you are to be traumatized.

COMMON REACTIONS TO TRAUMA

Depression - Emotional numbness/detachment
Inability to form close, satisfying relationships
Anxiety
Phobias - fears
Poor Concentration
Hair trigger stress response (dizziness, pounding heart, nausea)
Disturbing memories, nightmares, or flashbacks
Sense of a foreshortened, limited future
Anger
Substance Abuse
Dissociation
Guilt and self-blame
Mood swings and irritability
Feeling disconnected or numb
Insomnia or nightmares
Withdrawing from others
Loss of appetite
Feeling sad or hopeless

TRAUMA AND CHILDREN

Early trauma can diminish/impede a child's potential intellectually, emotionally and psychologically. Unresolved or early trauma in children can look like ADHD and it can impact the developing attachment relationship.

COMMON REACTIONS TO TRAUMA IN CHILDREN

Sleep disturbance
Guilt
Acting younger - regression
Inability to focus
Developmental delays
Speech delays
Symptoms of Attachment Disorder
Inability to self regulate
Poor social skills
Withdrawal
Acting out

 

GRIEF AND EMDR

Often when we lose someone or something dear to us, we experience a shattering of our inner emotional worlds. Prior to our loss we base our lives on assumptions, both conscious and unconscious, about how life "should be." The loss of a loved one places us on a collision course with unrealized hopes and dreams, and consequently we are forced to grieve what is no more and what will never be.

Grief is a natural, unlearned process that unfolds in a unique manner for each person. Coming to terms with loss is a journey in which the individual discovers how life can be meaningful in spite of shattered assumptions. However, there are numerous obstacles along the path of grief. Many bereaved individuals struggle with powerful feelings of depression and lack of meaning; fear and loneliness, unrelenting guilt over words said and unsaid, actions completed and uncompleted, and deep anger.

Many people progress along the path of grief without encountering serious setbacks. Others, however, encounter painful emotional roadblocks that keep the individual stuck in suffering and discomfort.

For more answers to frequently asked questions about EMDR, please click here