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An Accelerated Way to Heal Emotional Distress From Disturbing Life Events



Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence based approach to therapy that can heal emotional pain, rework ingrained negative beliefs, and resolve traumatic experiences that feel "stuck." It is often thought that deep emotional pain takes a long time to heal, but EMDR is an approach to therapy that can accelerate the healing process.


EMDR can help the mind heal from emotional trauma much like the body heals from physical trauma.


When you have a cut or wound, your body knows exactly what to do to heal; however physical healing can be blocked if the wound is repeatedly opened or irritated.


Emotional healing works the same way. Your brain knows exactly how to heal from psychological wounds and is designed to naturally move towards mental health; however, in the wake of a traumatic or overwhelming event, healing can be blocked.


Emotional wounds can be repeatedly triggered, leaving them feeling open and unresolved. Memories can feel stuck, as though they're frozen in time.



How Memory Works



Remember that terrible high school boyfriend or girlfriend you had? How they broke your heart and ruined you for love forever?


What comes up when you think about that now? Do you feel the same as you felt all those years ago?


Probably not.


For most of us, life moves on, new relationships come into our lives, and the pain of the past loosens its grip. A better or more stable long term relationship takes its place and relationships in general feel positive again.


Most of our memories work like this. Our mind processes them and stores them where they feel neutral - we can remember there was pain at the time it happened, but we don't experience that same intensity of pain when we think about it now.


The bad experience also links up with more positive or adaptive experiences, so that it becomes blurred over time until it fades into simply something from your distant past.


What memories live that way in your mind? As something you remember was difficult, but that doesn't carry any intense emotional charge as you think about it now?


That's how your memory is designed to work, events from the past get processed so that they feel neutral and behind you...


But sometimes that process gets disrupted and experiences feel frozen in time, like they get triggered over and over in the present even though you know they belong in the past.



Triggers and Why it Feels Like You Relive Some Memories Instead of Just Remembering



Memories of traumatic or highly overwhelming experiences work completely differently.


Any experience that is overwhelming at the time it happens can interfere with the memory making center of the brain, causing those memories to become stuck in "trauma time" - they live on feeling pretty much the same as they did at the time they happened.





Unlike normal memories that are changed and neutralized by new experiences over time, trauma memories exist in a bubble with a tight outer shell around them.


They're stuck.


New information can't get to those memory networks to help diffuse them so that they feel more like remembering and less like reliving.


That's why things that you intellectually know are in the past can feel so emotionally alive in the present.


Do you have anything like this in your memories or experiences?


Most of us do. I remember trying on clothes in a store and the employee helping me asked what I do for work. I told her I help people with anxiety and trauma and she said, "I have trauma." To which I replied, "I think most of us do."


You are not alone in this.


I always say that if you live long enough, you will go through something hard. Some experiences can be overwhelmingly hard, and really stick in your mind in ways that limit your ability to truly live fully and peacefully in the present.


But EMDR can help.


EMDR removes the blocks that keep you from healing deep psychological pain, and activates your brain's innate ability to move towards mental health and equilibrium.


Repeated studies show EMDR to be effective in delivering benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. EMDR is best know for effectively treating trauma, but it is also highly effective in:



In my nearly 25 years of work as a licensed therapist, I've consistently seen that EMDR is more effective and efficient in resolving pain from the past than traditional talk therapy approaches.



How EMDR Works



???????????????????????EMDR activates your brain's innate ability to process and store memories where they are neutral and free from strong emotion.


It opens up the hard shell around trauma memories that are stuck, so that they can join up with more positive and adaptive experiences and memories that dull the pain and make them feel neutral.


EMDR won't make you forget a terrible experience. You'll remember what happened and you'll remember how you felt, but you will no longer be reliving the experience...


The memory will feel like other memories from the past, something that happened but that feels neutral without power when you recall it now.


For many people, EMDR goes far beyond just neutralizing trauma memories to actually enabling them to tap into a deeper sense of strength, resilience, changed perspective, and meaning that they carry forward with them in a positive way.


EMDR works around these principles:


EMDR is based on the idea of memory networks


Your brain is like the most efficient super computer, constantly taking in information and filing it away with similar experiences. These "files" create memory networks, related memories and associations based on your experiences.


Some of these memory networks hold positive information, like the way the smell of a certain perfume instantly brings to mind a cherished loved one. It may even transport you in time to a favorite memory of being with that person.


But others hold negative information and are even more powerful to transport you back in time to painful events and feelings. Trauma memory networks link images, smells, sounds, beliefs, emotions, and/or body sensations with negative and overwhelming experiences, and when triggered can easily put you right back in the experience of the trauma.


Trauma memories live in isolated memory networks, where they aren't changed by new information. EMDR focuses on identifying and strengthening "adaptive" memory networks - those that hold positive memories or resources - then opening up trauma memory networks and linking them with the adaptive ones. This is what "un-sticks," processes, and neutralizes traumatic memories. They become integrated in your mind and experience like any other memory that just feels neutral.


EMDR uses Bilateral Stimulation (BLS) to access and link memory networks


Bilateral Stimulation (BLS) is movement that crosses the mid-line of the body from the left side to the right side. BLS, which may be eye movements, taps, or auditory tones, activates connections in your brain that help to process memories by opening trauma memory networks and linking them with adaptive memory networks. This works to integrate, process, and neutralize memories so that they lose their power.


One theory of how this works is similar to Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep. The quick back and forth eye movements that occur while you dream help your brain to process and consolidate things you've experienced so that they're stored in long term memory as something that happened in the past, without strong feeling in the present. EMDR uses this same quick back and forth movement to activate your brain's innate ability to process and consolidate memories in ways that are easy to recall.


EMDR emphasizes working in your "Window of Tolerance"


???????????????????EMDR greatly reduces the distress that can come with processing trauma memories in several ways:







The EMDR process keeps you in your "Window of Tolerance" - the place where you feel enough connection to a memory or trigger to be able to process it, but don't feel a sense of being overwhelmed by the experience.



What Happens After EMDR



This is the best part.


The EMDR process truly changes the way a memory or event is stored in your brain, so that it continues to be diffused and neutral over time. The change is profound and long lasting.


As pain from the past is processed, clarity comes for the present. It becomes more clear how to make decisions about moving forward and what life will look like in the the future.


New insights are gained. It's not unusual to renew a deep sense of meaning and purpose, to reconnect to parts of yourself you've lost along the way, to rediscover dreams that have died, or to reconcile a broken faith.


The deep healing of EMDR frees you up to live more fully and peacefully in the present, and to have a restored sense of hope for the future.


For EMDR Therapy or EMDR Intensives in Colorado, contact me for a free consultation!



About Celia Sugg, LCSW


Celia Sugg, LCSW, specializes in helping professionals, perfectionists, and people pleasers struggling with anxiety and overwhelm get results oriented help so that they can experience healing and hope. She provides in person therapy in Colorado Springs, and online therapy across Colorado and Florida.


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