A Therapist Answers 5 Common Questions About EMDR Therapy

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR therapy was created by Dr. Shapiro in the late 1980s. EMDR therapy is an 8-phase form of psychotherapy that helps people heal from the body up to the mind.  It is underpinned by the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model. The AIP model supports that the human body can heal itself. However, when human beings experience stress, trauma, or overwhelm, the nervous system internally stores elements of these stressful experiences. These stored elements then impede our body’s innate ability to heal, thus causing mental health and trauma-related symptoms.

Who Can Benefit from EMDR Therapy?

Throughout EMDR therapy’s history, many people have experienced its healing effects. At first, EMDR therapy was designed to target distress. Since then, EMDR therapy has been shown to be effective in helping people heal from past traumatic experiences, i.e. childhood abuse, combat exposure, discrimination, and religious trauma. Furthermore, EMDR therapy has shown effectiveness in healing obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms, suicidal thoughts, self-harm urges, depression, anxiety, and addiction urges. EMDR has and continues to prove its effectiveness on a daily basis.

How Long Does EMDR Therapy Take?

This is a great question and one that needs some explanation. Every person’s history and life experiences are different. Someone healing from a recent distressful work experience may take less time to heal than someone seeking therapy due to childhood trauma. That being said. Sometimes people seek therapy for a recent life event and through the therapeutic process begin to recognize a history of trauma. EMDR therapists work with humans and not robots. It’s hard to guess how many therapy sessions someone needs to heal. An important factor to mention is that while someone is in EMDR therapy, they will start the see the positive effects as memories begin to be reprocessed.

What Does an EMDR Session Look Like?

An EMDR therapy session can vary depending on what phase someone is in. When most people think about EMDR or hear about it they think about reprocessing memories. This occurs in phase four of EMDR reprocessing. In the beginning sessions of EMDR, the therapist and client will discuss past historic events, relationships, attachment patterns, and the presence of dissociation. Then, in phase two the skills of dual awareness is taught by creating internal resources the client can use to help stabilize the nervous system. Every phase of EMDR is different but builds on one another.

Find EMDR Therapist Near Englewood, CO

Catalyss Counseling offers both in-person EMDR therapy as well as online EMDR therapy to support those looking to heal. A few factors to consider when finding an EMDR therapist near you include:

·      Overall proximity to where you live

·      Travel time

·      Life demands

Taking these variables into consideration can help to determine whether in-person therapy or virtual therapy better suits your needs.

Start EMDR Therapy in Colorado

Research has shown EMDR therapy can help heal the body and nervous system from past trauma, stressful situations, and overwhelming experiences.  If you are ready to improve your self-confidence, improve relationships with others, and drop the chains that hold you back you’re in the right place.

How We Can Help

If you would like to talk to someone more about how we can help you,

follow these simple steps:

1. Contact us today for a free 20-minute phone consultation

2. Or, you can book directly online with the therapist of your choice

3. Begin your journey towards a calmer, more relaxed life

Author Biography

This blog was written by Daniel Gospodarek, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. He operates Revitalize Mental Health PLLC which serves men who have experienced trauma, PTSD, C-PTSD, infidelity, and work-related traumas, first responders, military personnel, and healthcare professionals looking to heal. Daniel is duly licensed in both Wisconsin and Colorado. He is certified in EMDR and is currently in his intermediate level of Somatic Experiencing training. 

Other Therapy Services Available at Catalyss Counseling:

Here at Catalyss Counseling, we want to meet all of your counseling needs in the Denver area. Our supportive therapists provide depression counseling, therapy for caregiver stress, grief and loss therapy, stress management counseling, and more. We also have specialists in trauma and PTSD, women's issues, pregnancy and postpartum depression or anxiety, pregnancy loss and miscarriage, and birth trauma. For therapists, we can also provide clinical supervision! We look forward to connecting with you to help support your journey today.