based in Austin, TX

EMDR Therapy

For teens and adults

Is the pain of your past holding you back?

When we experience a traumatic or painful event, these memories are sometimes misplaced in our bodies. Much like a computer misfiling a document, our brains can do the same thing with painful experiences. This can lead to things like:

  • Numbness

  • Dissociation or depersonalization

  • Panic attacks

  • Acute anxiety, especially when reminded of the memory

  • Sleep challenges

  • Physical symptoms such as GI issues, skin rashes, or locking jaw

  • Withdrawing from loved ones

  • And many other physical and psychological symptoms

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy can help your brain “re-file” difficult memories, ultimately decreasing the symptoms associated with them and helping you restore a sense of balance, presence, and stability in your day-to-day life.

things we can help with

EMDR can help treat the impacts of many difficult or traumatic experiences:

  • Traumatic loss, including overdose, drowning, suicide, or homicide

  • Sexual, emotional, or physical abuse

  • Complex trauma

  • Neglect and attachment wounds

  • Medical trauma, including new diagnoses or negligence

  • Health anxiety and Illness Anxiety Disorder

  • Terminal illness

  • Chronic pain

How it works

EMDR is the gold standard for reprocessing the triggers, cues, or memories that are causing you distress.

EMDR is a trauma modality utilizing bilateral stimulation such as eye movements or light tapping on the hands, to bridge both sides of the brain in order to “reprocess” painful memories. It was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro as she found bilateral eye movements, similar to our eye movements during REM sleep, helped her to cope with the challenges of her own breast cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Trauma is stored in our bodies, not just our minds. With EMDR, you can go beyond the limits of traditional talk therapy and your thoughts alone, incorporating the body aspects of trauma while with the emotional self and the negative core beliefs (such as “Nothing I ever do is enough” or “I am not safe”) that often accompany these difficult experiences.

By working directly with the nervous system to desensitize the reactivity in the body to the trauma source, you can rely less on unhealthy coping mechanisms, improve emotional stability, and increase your sense of self-compassion and self-love.

What is trauma, anyway?

We often hear from clients who don’t consider their experiences to be painful or significant enough to “qualify” as trauma. We want to assure you that there is no measuring stick for trauma. It is simply a situation that leaves you with psychological, physical, or relational impacts that feel like more than you can handle. 

When we become overwhelmed in this way, our brain and body struggle to appropriately digest the event, process it, and properly file it away. Often, our brains go even further, determining what the event(s) say about us as people. This can lead to negative core beliefs that erode our quality of life and sense of wellbeing.

It’s possible to make peace with the past and become present in life again.

Frequently asked questions about EMDR therapy

FAQs

  • EMDR directly addresses both the trauma source—how our amygdala and nervous system identify and react to the source (think fight, flight, freeze or fawn)—and the cognitions and beliefs we associate with that trauma source.

    It’s important to understand that EMDR is more than just eye movements. It involves preparation and assessment to ensure you are well-equipped to manage any discomfort that comes up and integrate the healing into your day-to-day life. EMDR has 8 phases, and your therapist will guide you through each one, spending as much time as necessary before moving to the next one:

    • History taking

    • Client preparation

    • Assessment

    • Desensitization

    • Installation

    • Body scan

    • Closure

    • Reevaluation

  • EMDR can result in individuals feeling they are no longer controlled by their traumatic experiences but have a sense of autonomy and empowerment, a comfort in their body, and an improvement in mood, sense of self, and general wellbeing. The reprocessing creates a literal synaptic repair and brings resolution to the mental injury.

  • It’s normal to wonder if what you’ve experienced would actually be considered trauma. Ultimately, any experience or series of experiences that has led you to feel unsafe, overwhelmed, disconnected, or otherwise impacted can be considered trauma.

  • Click this link to schedule a free consultation with us. We’ll answer your questions and you can decide if Blue Note is the right place for you on this journey. If you’re interested in working with a specific therapist on our team, you’ll have the opportunity to indicate that so you can be connected directly with them for your consultation.