By Alexis Fahey, LMFT | West Coast Integrative Adolescent, Young Adult & Family Therapist
Hi, Alexis here from West Coast integrative. I am a certified EMDR therapist. EMDR is a buzzword that's been going around quite a bit lately so you might be interested in what exactly EMDR is, what it can be useful for, and how exactly it works.
How to know if EMDR may be right for you:
You have tried talk therapy and feel like you would like to incorporate your body more.
You struggle to remember events.
You feel like you could benefit from replacing negative self talk with positive.
You experience flashbacks from specific memories/events.
You would like to target specific phobias or fears.
You would like to understand the origin of your beliefs about yourself and the world more.
EMDR is short form eye movement desensitization reprocessing. This woman found out that in REM sleep, our eyes are actually moving back and forth in our minds (like in our brain - in their eye cavities). And as they move back and forth, it is processing what we experienced that day - basically like downloading memories and making meaning of it.
So she started doing brain studies on people and realizing that if people talked about their trauma while moving their eyes back and forth, as well as creating new self-talk around what they had experienced and talking through their symptoms, they started seeing a reduction in PTSD symptoms.
Now EMDR has been expanded to be used for quite a lot of presenting problems. It is a really cool way of reprocessing old memories as well as current triggers and figuring out answers to questions such as:
What does this stem from?
Why do I feel this way about myself?
Why does this certain thing bother me?
If you are having PTSD symptoms or intrusive thoughts about things it's helpful in understanding the origin of it without necessarily having to just repeat and talk through the stories. Talk therapy is super helpful, but if that hasn't been working for you, EMDR might be a good thing to try as it's a somatic modality that really breaks down some barriers in our logical brain (that likes to go through the talk therapy and kind of block off our feelings and our body from it).
EMDR does a really good job of repairing the bodily sensations and thoughts that we have about ourselves in a new and different way, so if you're interested in learning more about EMDR therapy, please give me a call or contact us to learn more so that we can discuss if this modality could be helpful for you.
To get in touch with Alexis Fahey, LMFT, please complete this consultation form to set up a free 15-minute phone consultation.
Alexis Fahey, LMFT is an attachment-focused therapist who often works with teens and young adults around self-esteem/identity work, relationship issues, anxiety, depression, OCD, trauma, and PTSD. She has experience working with clients who are in eating disorder and substance use recovery. Alexis also specializes in healing the family system and reducing family conflict. Alexis is certified in EMDR, utilizes CBT interventions, and offers parent coaching.
She is currently accepting new clients for Telehealth adolescent, adult, and family therapy in California.
More about Alexis Fahey, LMFT
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