What is EMDR?

Do you feel like you are revisiting the same negative experiences again and again? Are you disturbed and troubled by nightmares, memories, or flashbacks? Do you feel shame for those memories and wonder if you are to blame?
​
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a method used to treat trauma victims who are feeling the after effects of a traumatic experience. Our EMDR therapy in Coquitlam and Burnaby can help you take control of your emotional well being and start feeling better in your day to day life.

What is Trauma?

Trauma is a unique experience for each individual, but it is usually a negative experience or collection of experiences that a person carries with them throughout their life. This often can lead to emotional struggles or mental health challenges days, weeks, months, or even years after the traumatic event. Some people may not even realize that they have had a traumatic event until years later. 

When a person experiences a traumatic event, the brain may become emotionally overwhelmed and is unable to process information the way it usually would. This causes that emotion to become stuck in a loop, and when that memory is brought to the surface it can trigger a fight or flight response in the body. This can cause intense flashbacks that feel as real and as serious as when the event first occurred.

Other symptoms include:

• Easily startled or frightened
• Always being on the lookout for danger
• Self-destructive behavior, such as excessive substance abuse or driving too fast
• Trouble sleeping or concentrating
• Irritability, angry outbursts or aggressive behavior
• Overwhelming guilt or shame

​
Experiences like this can have an extreme impact on a person’s quality of life, as well as their own self worth and relationships with others.

How Does EMDR Work?

Many individuals do not even recognize the connection between their current struggles and their past traumatic experiences. Our Coquitlam and Burnaby trauma therapists can help you build those connections and start to heal using EMDR. 

EMDR is a phased, scientific psychotherapy method based on the theory that present distress is due to disturbing events from the past. This is an alternative to more traditional talk therapy and it has been proven to provide rapid results to many clients. EMDR helps your central nervous system process “stuck” emotions or unresolved memories that may not have been naturally processed at the time of the event. Over time, this helps to reduce the vividness of the memory and eventually prevents the body from having a fight or flight response when remembering. 
​
EMDR can be used to address conditions such as: physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, emotional abuse, distressing memories (veteran experiences, accidents, etc.), phobias, complex grief, panic disorders, dissociation, performance anxiety, and personality disorders. Even some mental health disorders that are not directly related to one traumatic event can be treated by EMDR.

Our Coquitlam and Burnaby Counselling Services Can Help​

If you are struggling with troubling thoughts, feelings, and experiences that are constantly on your mind, or you are obsessively worried about avoiding potential triggers, it’s time to take the steps to take back your life. Coquitlam and Burnaby counselling services are here to support you and start your journey to a healthy mind. 

Waiting and avoiding likely won’t improve your symptoms, but you don’t have to face your traumatic memories alone. Book a free 15 minute consultation to get started.

For More Information

Contact me

Book now