EMDR Therapy: Rewrite your story

EMDR Therapy opens windows in the mind. Imagine rewriting your story.

One where YOU decide who you are, how you can be, and how life’s challenges affect you. 

Take a moment to notice how you view yourself in the world.

Complete the statement, ”I am_____”. Is your belief negative, such as, “I am unworthy.”, “I am powerless.”, or  ”I am unsafe.”? If so, that core belief may be tied to earlier unprocessed memories. 

What if you could believe something else?

What would you rather believe about yourself? I am strong, safe, capable, worthy, lovable, smart… 

People decide to start EMDR therapy because of anxiety, depression, or pervasive negative beliefs. Francine Shapiro, the originator and developer of EMDR therapy stated that often these experiences are the result of unprocessed memories.

When trauma happens – be it an accident, loss, attack, abuse, bullying, or humiliation – the emotional experience can be too strong for your brain to process. It’s what brains do when they’re overwhelmed. The information gets frozen in time in your right brain.

The memories aren’t integrated with your left brain. Hence, they may lack language, reasoning, and an observing mind. They may seem like an amorphous cluster of feelings, sensations and negative beliefs.

In EMDR therapy, your brain reprocesses old memories with both hemispheres of the brain, and makes new connections with positive information.

To boot, it employs dual awareness which helps keep you aware of your current safety while exploring old memories. What once felt traumatic can now feel like a thing of the past.

EMDR therapy stimulates integration across brain regions. It uses positive information such as experiences of feeling nurtured, protected, safe, and relaxed to rewrite neural networks. This new information creates a more balanced story associated with the old memory.

EMDR is like shifting a car into gear.

It engages the engine so that it functions as an integrated whole and you choose where the car goes. Reprocessed memories, integrate brain regions so that experiences feel more balanced and distant giving you control of your next steps. 

“Changing the memories that form the way we see ourselves also changes the way we view others. Therefore, our relationships, job performance, what we are willing to do or are able to resist, all move in a positive direction.” – Francine Shapiro.