EMDR Counseling in Florida
Wesley Chapel, Tampa, Lutz, and Nearby Areas
EMDR Counseling is a therapeutic exercise that changes how experiences are perceived, stored, and retrieved in your brain. The acronym EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. That’s a mouthful, so let’s unpack it.
Eye Movement
Think about REM sleep. During this cycle, your eyes move back and forth, your brain activity increases, you dream, and you process information. It’s like your brain is a snow globe that gets shaken up throughout the day and REM sleep is the time when the events, thoughts, and emotions of the day settle into their appropriate brain spaces.
During EMDR, you have your eyes open and intentionally move them left to right while you focus on a conscious, upsetting thought or memory. This eye movement engages both sides of your brain, resulting in the same bilateral stimulation of REM. It helps you process thoughts and memories that are still “floating around” and causing distress.
If a client is not comfortable with eye movement, there are other ways to achieve this same bilateral stimulation, through sounds or body tapping.
The alternating eye movement during EMDR engages both sides of your brain, resulting in the same bilateral stimulation of REM. There are other ways to achieve this same bilateral stimulation, through sounds or body tapping, if you prefer.
Desensitization
Imagine if you were standing on the goal line of a football field and you saw someone you care about standing 100 yards away on the opposite goal line. If they were whispering hurtful words to you, would you hear them and have a negative emotional response? No. That’s comparable to many memories, even painful ones. We still “see” them in our mind’s eye, but we aren’t currently prone to persistent, strong emotional responses to them.
Now, imagine if you were on the same goal line but you had highly sensitive, Spidey senses and you could actually hear the terrible things being said about you. The distance between you and the speaker wouldn’t matter. You would likely have a negative emotional response. This is comparable to memories that continue to stimulate strong emotional responses, despite their distance from the present.
EMDR targets sensitive thoughts and memories that cause ongoing distress and seeks to reduce a person’s emotional responsiveness to them. The memory is still there and the thought may still occur, but the response is different.
Reprocessing
God is the master Creator! He made our bodies with numerous internal systems to equip us for life in this world. Our cardiovascular, respiratory, and muscular systems work together to regulate our internal temperatures despite a fluctuating external climate. Our digestive system takes the food we eat, processes it, sends nutrients to all the appropriate places in the body, and discards the parts that don’t benefit us.
Similarly, God made our brains with the ability to process positive and negative emotional experiences in a way that leads to our growth, not destruction. Under certain circumstances, this natural processing is interrupted, malfunctions or our systems are overwhelmed. In these instances, experiences are not “digested” properly or stored appropriately in our brains. EMDR seeks to reprocess past memories and present beliefs, laying a path for future increased emotional health and beneficial behaviors.
Looking for accelerated healing?
Click here to learn about our EMDR Intensives!
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Looking for accelerated healing? Click here to learn about our EMDR Intensives! ~ ~ ~
“Is EMDR only useful for traumatic memories?”
No. While EMDR has proven to be an effective treatment for trauma survivors, it can be helpful for any upsetting memory or unwanted thought pattern. Even mild situations like the stress of rush hour traffic, disagreements with co-workers, or negative self-talk can be treated with EMDR. The thing that many people appreciate is that EMDR does not require you to go into great detail talking about your challenges. Instead, you mostly think about them and let your brain do its healing work.
“Is EMDR a type of hypnosis?”
No. Some individuals are reluctant to consider EMDR as a treatment option because they don’t want to open their minds to unwanted influences. They equate EMDR with hypnotherapy. This is a popularly held misconception. In fact, EMDR is not hypnosis. The thoughts and images that are used in the reprocessing stage are client-chosen and can even be scriptures
The main differences between EMDR & hypnosis are outlined in the chart below.
EMDR is not the same as hypnosis - Check out EMDR Counseling at Boundless Hope Christian Counseling in Florida
“I’m interested. How do I get started?”
We offer EMDR counseling and EMDR Intensives to Tampa, Wesley Chapel, Lutz, and nearby areas. A multi-day EMDR Intensive can be a great option if you are looking for accelerated healing.
Intensives, structured to cover more ground in fewer days, are a great fit for you when:
Your schedule doesn’t allow for weekly therapy visits or you need to minimize time away from work.
You are looking for prompt symptom relief and want a big change in a shorter time; a few months’ worth of healing in just a few days.
You believe there is more healing to be had. You are ready to dig in and commit to the hard work.
No one makes their way through life unscathed. We all have large and small difficulties to navigate. Whether you’re healing from trauma or simply looking to continue strengthening your mental health, EMDR could be a good fit for you. Jolene Lantz, Karrissa Manchester, April Covington, and Camilla Mason each provide EMDR counseling for Boundless Hope clients. You can reach out to them directly, email Boundless Hope, or call us to schedule a FREE 15-minute phone consultation.