Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress

Do you find yourself often reacting  strongly to things people say or do - and being surprised by how intense your response was?  Or maybe others have suggested that you tend to  "overreact?"  

It might be due to having a sore spot.  

Many of us carry invisible sore spots from difficult experiences that were frightening or overwhelming.  These experiences might have happened once or on multiple occasions.  Sometimes these sore spots come from the chronic lack of something, such as a lack of consistent safety, food, or shelter.

A sore spot is like a bruise that no one can see but you can feel it when it's touched...and it hurts.  This can feel overwhelming and might look to others like anger or sadness, but inside it's about feeling hurt in a tender place.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a well-researched treatment that works to reduce the size of or eliminate the sore spot.  It combines cognitive and somatic models of psychotherapy into a structured and supportive approach. 

There are many advantages to EMDR:

- there is no need for deep exploration of the actual event,

- there is no homework, 

- a traumatic event can often be processed in one to three sessions, after some preparation has been done, 

- significant research has been done in over two decades that supports EMDR's effectiveness in the treatment of trauma

You might be wondering what the eye movement in EMDR is about.  This is a fascinating component of EMDR.  It involves the movement of the eyes while the client is thinking and feeling in response to various cues from the therapist.  This movement seems to assist the brain in processing the event.

What does "processing" mean?  It refers to a kind of digestion of information that enables the client to reduce or eliminate the sore spot.  It does not remove recall of the events.  Instead, it helps the client become much less activated by situations that used to be overwhelming or anger-inducing.  

It's easy to imagine the opportunities for joy that can follow from this change.

If this sounds like it might apply to your situation, then EMDR is one model that I could potentially offer you, depending on your comfort and readiness.