EMDR Therapy in Phoenix, AZ
Your nervous system knows how to heal. Sometimes it just needs some help getting unblocked, and EMDR does that.
Here’s How EMDR Therapy Works
EMDR is a fascinating healing modality. Here’s how it works. Imagine you cut your finger. Your body knows how to heal that wound. In that same way, your body knows how to heal mental wounds. Your nervous system returns, over and over, to a healed and regulated state.
But, sometimes, healing gets blocked for a variety of reasons. Let’s imagine a piece of glass is stuck in the cut from our earlier example. The injury can’t close because something is blocking the wound from healing. The same thing happens with psychological wounds. Sometimes the wound-processing system shuts down because the emotional experience is too overwhelming.
Those emotionally painful experiences get frozen in the mind. Let’s say that emotional injury took place many years ago. You may wonder, shouldn’t I be over it by now? But if the emotional experience is frozen in your mind, it still exists, open and unhealed.
Because it’s open and unhealed, things in your life today that your mind thinks are similar to that frozen emotional experience will trigger you, and all of the feelings from the original emotional experience will come flooding in.
That experience of being flooded by emotions can be so baffling. You might be sitting in a meeting where someone says something that sets you off. You can see that your response to the situation is not appropriate. Yet, you can’t stop yourself from having that huge emotional response.
That huge and confusing emotional response in the meeting probably connects to something that hasn’t been completely processed. That’s where EMDR can help.
EMDR:
A memory-based
therapy.
The storage of memory can lead to diagnoses, pathology, or disease. The storage of memories can also promote health and wellness. Your memories are stored in networks in your brain. The memories form networks based on similar components like the same feeling, the same body sensation, and so on.
With EMDR therapy,
“What wires together fires together.”
With EMDR, you can fully access your adaptive networks. That which was painful will lose its intensity. You will remember that it happened, but it just doesn’t hurt as bad, or create as much panic, or anger, and so on.
While a dentist heals your mouth and a podiatrist heals your feet, EMDR and therapy heal your nervous system.
EMDR Therapy FAQs
Who is EMDR therapy for?
Almost anyone can benefit from EMDR. It’s particularly good for people struggling with anxiety, panic, PTSD, and trauma. However, if you have something you just haven’t been able to get relief from, schedule a free call with me, and we can see if EMDR would be good for you.
What if my past is too terrible to bring back up?
EMDR has lots of different steps. There’s a long preparation phase, and we won’t move out of that phase until you’re ready. Also, many clients have some less scary things they choose to process first. This seems to build some confidence. Finally, you’re in control of your EMDR process. You get to say where it goes when to go further, and when to stop.
Why can't the past just stay in the past?
If there is emotional pain that hasn’t been completely processed, perhaps because you just didn’t know how to process it when it happened, it’s frozen in your mind, like an open wound. Things in your present-day life keep hitting that wound, and it flares up again, getting inflamed or infected. EMDR can help you close that wound so it won’t get scraped by present-day circumstances again.
Individual Counseling Services From Wise Body Therapy:
- EMDR
- Trauma Focused
- Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
- Compassion Focused
- Mindfulness-Based (MBCT)
- Person-Centered
- Somatic
- Strength-Based
Populations We Serve with Individual Therapy and Counseling Services:
- Adults
- Teens
- All genders
Wise Body Therapy is a Safe Place For All:
- Heath at Every Size (HAES) aligned
- Polyamorous allied
- Sex Worker Allied
- Racial Justice Allied
- GLBTQIA+ Allied
- HIV / AIDS Allied
- Single Parent Allied
- Little Person Allied
- Law enforcement/First responders/Child Welfare workers
Counseling Services Are Offered For These Issues and More:
- Trauma and PTSD
- Secondary traumatic stress for first responders, child welfare investigators and case managers, probation/parole officers, and so forth.
- Eating Disorders
- Anxiety
- Addiction/substance use
- Anger Management
- Codependency
- Coping Skills
- Depression
- Family Conflict
- Self Esteem
- Spirituality
- Stress
- Women's Issues
Let's talk.
Schedule your FREE 30-minute discovery call.