EMDR, Group and Individual Therapy

Profile

Description Of Practice

We are bombarded by the message that life should always be light and happy, that pain is equated with dysfunction. But life does have pain in it. We all, if we allow ourselves to keep growing, experience breakdowns and disruptions from time to time.
It's not whether we experience distress that defines us. Rather, the shape of our souls and the measure of our courage are determined by how we engage and grow in response to life’s challenges.


Depression is often the result of the “natural” response to difficult experiences of the past or present. When emotions felt as if they might overwhelm you or others, muffling those feelings may have been the only wise choice at the time. EMDR is wonderfully effective in helping to rework past experiences, relationships and emotional barriers. It’s not your history we’ll be seeking to change, but your relationship to your history.

Anxiety and phobias, too, are often a pattern that gets set up in the nervous system in response to early (or recent) events, relationships or the general environment. Here too, EMDR is a powerful tool. Research has shown that anxiety, embedded as it is in the nervous system, is often very responsive to the neurological re-patterning that is possible with EMDR.


As with so many areas of focus in therapy, EMDR is also very effective in treating both large and small traumas.
The “capital T” traumas are those well defined events that change the direction of our lives. But sometimes the lesser events of the past, the “small t” traumas, can leave us with scars. Examples include repeating experiences of neglect, or anger in the home, or pressure or bullying at school. Young psyches in particular will often form themselves around the hurtful pattern. When this happens, healing is necessary on two levels. First, the trauma itself must be healed. Then we will address the relationship and self esteem patterns that have resulted from all the years of living with the traumatic injury.

Additional Information

For many of the over 20 years of my professional life I worked in long-term therapy with clients seeking change. My work now is seldom long-term because EMDR is so effective at re-working the neurological patterns from which clients are seeking to free themselves.
Many of my clients have had therapy before and are seeking the change that insight had promised but not delivered. The most effective therapy I know combines targeted EMDR work followed by membership in a therapy group where members are learning first-hand how they keep themselves from living the lives they long for. I believe in therapy that produces change. I think that’s why I find my work so exciting.