emdr

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) can transform harmful beliefs ("I am damaged," "I am incompetent," "I'm not worthy of love") and behaviors (reactivity, impulsivity, aggression, sleep impairment) that often result from acute and complex traumatic events.

You don't have to be a combat veteran or witness someone falling out of a helicopter to live with the effects of trauma. Chronic emotional abuse and neglect (now called "C-PTSD" or complex PTSD) can be difficult to see because they subtly integrate into the emotional landscape of your life and seem "normal." Medical and dental trauma, birth defects that require ongoing and often invasive surgeries, and unresolved/unrecognized grief can become "stuck" inside your body. All of that can wreak havoc on your emotions, your physical, spiritual and creative life, your relationships, work and overall capacity to feel present and alive.  

Click HERE for a wonderful NY Times Q&A with EMDR's creator, Dr. Francine Shapiro

Click HERE to read more about EMDR from the EMDRIA (EMDR International Association) Web site

"EMDR seems to work by clearing what Jean Klein refers to as 'psychological memory,' memory that feels emotionally charged, alive in the present, and very personal. Enormous energy and tension are employed thinking about and maintaining a psychological past, and these memories form the basis for our personal identity: we believe we are our history. Our bodies and minds hold these memories which imprison us. By identifying with them we cannot live fully in the present."
                                                              ---Laurel Parnell, Ph.D