EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing in a modality used to process trauma and heal the wounds that were left open since childhood.
Trauma is defined as a memory experienced as if it were happening all over again, reliving it as opposed to remembering it.
Dr Francine Shapiro stumbled onto this process naturally and has since researched it and verified it's efficacy through numerous controlled studies.
The very trigger that is creating the body's arousal is used through imagination to light up the neuro-network of distress while a trained therapist activates the adaptive neuro-network in the brain.
One foot in the past and one foot in the present is key.
When both of these networks are simultaneously active, they connect in the brain. It is then appropriately stored in memory, no longer triggering the stress response.
It can be remembered without activating your flight or fight response.
Most of us carry trauma in our nervous system and do not realize it.
We become accustomed to living in a heightened level of distress, consider it "normal", "life" or get busy anesthetizing it.
These unconscious triggers keep us stuck in the past, reliving pain,
suppressed in fear.
EMDR
integrates the brain so healing can happen.
Like our body, the brain is adaptive and designed to find wellbeing.
Trauma processing is phase 5 of an 8 step protocol.
Dissociation needs to be screened for and treated. Establishing a window of tolerance will also require considerable time to ground into the nervous system.
Many times if phase five is pursued too quickly it can have serious ramifications. Establishing a trust relationship with your therapist and moving into this type of work requires an understanding of and commitment to the protocol.