EMDR at Inspired Life Counseling
Welcome to Inspired Life Counseling! All of our clinicians are EMDRIA trained to provide EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to help people who have experienced traumatic events, complex trauma, or are currently in stressful situations at work, home, and relationships. We provide in-person and online EMDR sessions. For online sessions we use a platform called RemotEMDR in combination with Simple Practice. These are HIPAA compliant programs that ensure your privacy when accessing services online.
EMDR doesn’t make you forget what happened in your past, but it does help your mind resolve some of the residual emotional connection to that memory. On a scale of 0-10 in which a 0 is no disturbance and 10 is the most upset and hurt a person could be, EMDR can help that number slide down the spectrum. Sometimes the person will achieve a 0! Sometimes a person will go from a ten to a four.
Can you imagine carrying around the load of an 8, 9, or 10 and then later it’s a 4? It might not be all the way gone from your emotions, but it’s a lot lighter and easier to maintain.
EMDR is not a quick-fix. It takes about five sessions of talk therapy and prep work before the clinician starts doing the part of EMDR that reduces your emotional toll as it relates to those memories. Then, the amount of sessions is really dependent upon many factors such as how long ago it happened, the intensity of the memory, how frequent the issue occurred (was it an auto accident that happened once or childhood abuse that happened for years?). From what we’ve noticed and what the studies say, the amount of time it takes to feel relief from EMDR is considerably less than it takes from going to talk therapy only.
EMDR for the big stuff
EMDR is not only for the big heavy, duty traumas. While it sure works for the big wounds that we’ve been trying to heal from, it’s really astounding on the smaller things. Those experiences people carry with them that they wouldn’t really go to counseling for, and yet can be buttons for others to push – when clients work on resolution for these memories we notice an increase in confidence, patience for self and others, and improvement in relationships. That’s because we wouldn’t necessarily go to counseling for a comment our aunt made when we were twelve, but there’s always been a bit of animosity or insecurity in our hearts about it. When that aunt is around or the topic comes up, we find ourselves a little more irritable. EMDR for these experiences can bring peace to parts of our lives we were unaware were influencing us or robbing us of joy.
Here’s the thing about the big stuff: it hurts and it’s heavy, and nobody wants to have to talk about it or re-live it in order to heal. They want to heal, but they know the heavy lifting is going to be painful. It is. It just is. I’m sorry. But we take a different approach and we go sloooooow. We start out really assessing and ensuring you have enough tools in your toolbox to be able to handle anything that comes up between sessions. We start the EMDR trauma processing by working on some of the little things in your life. The smaller, irritating memories: an argument with a spouse or sibling, an annoying coworker, a frustration that you have a hard time shaking but is unrelated to the big thing you came in with. Once your mind has had a chance to experience relief and to trust the process and your therapist, then we start slow on the big stuff. We target points of disturbance first. You don’t have to remember the full event right away, you can just remember and work on one little component of it and we start chipping away until you’re ready to tackle the overarching memory (and you call the shots on that one).
If you have any questions or want to make an appointment, please call or email the info below, or click the box and schedule an appointment online. Every one of our clinicians are trained by the organization that invented EMDR – they went straight to the source so they could learn and do the best jobs possible!
Another EMDR option is called: EMDR Intensives. These are full day sessions in which the client and clinician do multiple rounds of EMDR throughout the day, along with other resourcing and self-care interventions. The concentration of EMDR over the course of full days and throughout multiple days as shown to be as effective as the traditional frequency of long-term weekly sessions using EMDR as the treatment modality, but instead of spending months to get through the issue, healing occurs much quicker allowing for more time and space to enjoy relationships and life around you. To learn more about intensives, read our blog article titled EMDR Intensives.
All EMDR Intensives are provided by Jessica Wilkerson, LMFT. Schedule an assessment if you think you would benefit from an Intensive.