EMDR Therapy in Sacramento and Folsom
Heal Your Trauma
Don’t Let Your Past Hold You Back
No matter who you are, we all experience trauma in our lives, both big and small.
Psychological trauma is the emotional response that occurs in our bodies when we have terrible events or experiences happen in our lives (traumatic experiences).
These traumatic experiences can be physical like a car accident, rape, physical abuse, or a natural disaster. They can also be emotional like bullying, humiliation, neglect, or even grief. Each person experiences different events as traumatic so the experience of trauma is unique to each individual.
The automatic way our body responds to trauma is helpful in the moment when your life or safety is at risk but over the long term it can wreak havoc in our lives.
When trauma has not been processed properly it gets stuck in our bodies and brains. This causes a trauma response to be triggered by things not related to the original trauma.
A trauma response can look like sweating, trembling, increased heart rate, and difficulty breathing. Your brain stops the ability to think rationally. It thinks you are in trouble even though nothing dangerous is happening.
An example of this is a war veteran's response to fireworks, even when they know they aren’t dangerous.
When our bodies are engaged in this trauma response often or constantly it can be destructive to our bodies and our lives. This can look like hypervigilance, nightmares, reliving the negative experiences repeatedly, high reactivity in relationships, and experiences similar to the original trauma. For example, really struggling when your partner goes out of town because your parents left when you were a kid.
When this happens we call it PTSD, which is an anxiety response to a traumatic event. CPTSD or chronic PTSD often develops when the trauma happens repeatedly or chronically over a long period of time. CPTSD has additional symptoms on top of the typical PTSD symptoms.
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Here are some examples of situations that are considered trauma and that we treat with EMDR therapy at Soul Journey Therapy;
Car crash
Violent attack
Rape or sexual assault
Abuse, harassment, or bullying
Kidnapping or hostage situation
Witnessing a death or injury of another person
Employment with repeated exposure to distressing images or hearing details of traumatic events
Childbirth either as mother or partner/witness
War-including military combat
Terrorist attack
Natural disasters- flooding, pandemic, earthquake
Life-threatening diagnosis
Losing someone close in upsetting circumstances
Any event where you experienced fear for your life or felt unsafe
Witnessing or being the support person for a trauma survivor whether personally or professionally (also called secondary trauma)
Experiencing a trauma whether it is a single incident or it occurs over a long period of time can turn your life upside down.
But there is hope for healing when you have been through a traumatic experience. EMDR Therapy can help.
You know that your life could be better. And there are parts of life that you are missing out on because of what happened to you.
You’d like to move forward knowing that things are better now and you aren’t going to keep experiencing the;
Nightmares
Short temper
Defensiveness
Jumpiness
Feelings of being unsafe
That you have been experiencing ever since your life was changed forever. You want to feel like you are in control of your life again.
At Soul Journey Therapy we help people heal,
whether it’s from a single incident trauma like an accident or chronic trauma like long-term child abuse, serving in the military/law enforcement, or an abusive relationship.
In trauma therapy, you can expect to get in touch with all of your parts and feelings about the negative things that happened to you. You will develop a safe and trusting relationship with your therapist where you can explore the impact the trauma has had in your life. You will learn to develop awareness of how you are feeling in your body. You will look at how your body responds and learn how to control those responses. You will learn to ground yourself while also paying attention to the sensations in your body.
On top of that as trauma specialists that use EMDR we have a very effective tool in our tool chest.
EMDR Therapy or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Just talking about your problems isn’t always enough. The processing that happens during EMDR breaks through the blocks that are keeping you from living an adaptive, emotionally healthy life.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that result from trauma.
It heals the trauma you experienced but focuses on how that trauma is impacting your life today.
EMDR helps the mind heal from disturbing events as easily as it heals a physical injury like a cut or bruise. The brain knows what to do and EMDR just unblocks the process.
This allows you to process the memories that are stuck in the body and the brain.
In EMDR, eye movements or some other form of bilateral stimulation help the person to process the disturbing event and concerning emotions associated with it. The insights the person receives come from within the client.
Clients often leave EMDR feeling empowered to move on from experiences that once left them feeling stuck and helpless.
Research shows that EMDR can be effective in as few as three sessions. For more information about the effectiveness of EMDR and how it works check out my blog here.
Many people experiencing PTSD leave EMDR treatment having resolved the negative experience of trauma.
If you would like more information about EMDR check out this video from the EMDR International Association.
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Brainspotting
Brainspotting is another powerful tool that our therapists use to release stuck trauma in the body and/or brain. Using eye positions to process negative experiences it releases neuropsychological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation, and other symptoms that have their root in the negative experiences of life.
The healing experienced through the eye positions are enhanced through the use of bilateral sound, which helps the process to hit deep, directly, and powerfully in a way that is also focused and containing.
So this deep-focused trauma work can be done in a way that allows you to feel safe and in control.
The clinician and client work together to locate, focus, process, and release experiences and symptoms that can not be touched with classic talk therapy or the conscious mind.
It accesses traumas that are stuck deep within the most primitive parts of the body’s nervous system.
Brainspotting has profound emotional, psychological, and physical results on the person by the end of treatment.
If you think that you might benefit from trauma therapy at Soul Journey Therapy reach out and we can help you decide what type of therapy will work best for you.
If you are interested in our blogs about Trauma and EMDR check them out here;
