WHAT IS TRAUMA "Trauma" can often feel like an intimidating word. However, I define as anything that changes the way we see ourselves as people or how we see the world around us. Traumas can be large or small, overt actions or messages, or subtly compounding hurts over years. We often discount traumas but they impact our day to day approaches and reactions to life.
WHY EMDR As a clinical therapist with a strong background in individual trauma and PTSD therapy, I long ago became certified in EMDR therapy as my highly intelligent and introspective clients who I work with needed a deeper, less wordy, cerebral approach. EMDR is one of the most proven therapeutic techniques in clearing/ desensitizing traumatic events in a way that traditional talk therapy has not allowed clients to do in the past. EMDR is utilized to not only decrease trauma but as a powerful technique for performance enhancement for activities ranging from public speaking to athletic performance. Whether what you're struggling with is a "big" issue or a "small" one, it is all relative to how it is impacting your life. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a treatment modality that enables us to heal from the symptoms of troubling or traumatic life experiences.
WHAT IS EMDR EMDR can be beneficial when we have a pervasive belief caused by a single or repeated "trauma" that holds us back. This may be a negative belief such as "I'm not good enough", "I'm damaged" or "I don't deserve..." This is a negative belief that those around us would argue is irrational or doesn't match reality. EMDR connects our negative belief system with images or examples of when it has appeared for us most intensely in our lives and the associated emotions and physical sensation surrounding the belief. Through bilateral stimulation of the brain (either eye movements or vibrating hand paddles), we then allow our more primitive feeling brain to take over and take us back to those times versus our highly analytical "smart" brain that talks us out of those feelings. This "re-experiencing" of the events or feelings systematically takes us through a less guarded process so we can settle on what is true and accurate about ourselves or our world in the here and now versus how it had originally felt when we were far more vulnerable.
EMDR can't rewrite or erase history but I've seen it hundreds, if not thousands of times, show my clients that we can unmuddy the waters of our negative beliefs and traumas so that we can slide them off of us more easily. Here is a link to explain it further.