EMDR

The reality is that some things that happen in life can’t be talked into a place of peaceful resolution.  Certain events are just too big…too incomprehensible to get our minds wrapped around.   These traumatic experiences get locked in on a multi sensory and even cellular level.  Trauma can be a one time event such as an assault, accident or natural disaster.  It can also take place over a long period of time, such as childhood abuse, parental divorce dynamics or social stress that took place in school.

EMDR is a trauma tool that processes events on a multi-sensory level.  It desensitizes and also helps us makes sense of what took place.  The person focuses on the trauma, and then the counselor aids in stimulating right-left sides of the brain in rapid succession.  This is to replicate what takes place during the R.E.M portion of our sleep.  During REM sleep our eyes are moving back and forth under the lids…and this is when we dream.  Dreaming is our minds way of processing.  The brain can also be stimulated through sound or touch.

When stimulating the brain like this when awake, the same type of dream processing takes place.  Dream processing means that you are completely conscious, yet at the same time are able to recall events as vividly as you do when you dream.  Your mind only shows you exactly what you need to see, in the perfect order, and for only as long as you need to in order to desensitize and make sense of things.  Like a dream, you can process things very quickly in your mind…much much faster than if we spoke about them.

For even more information on EMDR, let me give you a couple of links… First is

Video from YouTube the next is general information  www.EMDR.com

For a greater understanding of trauma I’m going to link you to an entry from my blog