What is EMDR or Eye Movement Desensitization ?
What is EMDR?
Our past shapes how we experience and understand our present and what we expect from our future. Most people have negative experiences in their past that have a hindering impact in the present. This can range from negative beliefs about ourselves formed by critical parents to full blown PTSD because of traumatic events.
EMDR is a psychotherapeutic approach to desensitize and reprocess these past experiences in order to free us to live in the present. It is a thorough approach that focuses on reducing sensitivity of emotions, body sensations, thoughts, and mental pictures associated with past events. These same events are reprocessed in a manner that reduces their negative impact on how an individual lives in the present or future.
People often want to make certain changes in life, but find they are unable to because the nervous system reacts in maladaptive ways to stimuli that is similar to negative past events. Imagine a war veteran having a psychological fear response to fireworks on the 4th of July even though they know rationally its just fireworks and not a threat. Sometimes knowing something cognitively is not enough to free your body/brain from responding in an adverse way as a result of past experiences.
At Neuro Colorado we will help you decide if EMDR should be an integral part of your treatment.