EMDR Therapy
You feel trapped in the aftermath of a traumatic experience. The emotional and mental weight it carries seems impossible to shake. No matter how hard you try, the memories keep resurfacing, affecting your daily life. It’s like you’re stuck in the past, unable to move forward.
You might feel anxious, disconnected, or even numb at times. These feelings can make it hard to focus, engage in relationships, or enjoy the things that once brought you peace. You’re doing your best to push through, but the emotional toll is overwhelming.
EMDR Therapy Can Help You Break Free
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing) therapy can help you break free from the cycle of trauma. This science-backed, transformative approach helps you process tough memories. It uses specific eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation. These techniques help your brain reprocess traumatic memories. They reduce the memories’ emotional charge and help you move past the pain. Instead of avoiding the memories, EMDR helps you face them in a safe, supportive way, so you can regain control and find healing. You don’t have to be stuck anymore—EMDR therapy is here to help you reclaim your life.
What is EMDR?
EMDR is a unique, evidence-based therapeutic technique designed to help you process and heal from past trauma. EMDR, developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, is based on the idea that trauma disrupts your brain’s natural healing process. This leaves emotional and physical pain “stuck” in your system. EMDR helps the brain heal. It uses a structured process with bilateral stimulation, often through eye movements, to reprocess traumatic memories.
This therapy helps you access distressing memories in a safe, controlled place. It reframes those memories and rewires your brain’s response to them. This can, over time, reduce the emotional intensity of the memories. It can help you feel calmer, more in control, and better able to move on in life.
Looking for EMDR in St. Louis?
Get started with our free 15-minute phone consultation. Just choose a day and time for us to call you. Let’s take this step together!
How Does EMDR Therapy Work?
EMDR therapy is structured into eight phases. Here’s an overview of how it typically works:
History Taking and Assessment
In the first phase, your therapist will gather information about your history, including any traumatic events and current concerns. This helps them understand your specific needs and identify key memories to work on.
Preparation
Your therapist will explain the process and help you feel comfortable with the EMDR approach. This phase is about building trust and ensuring that you’re ready to begin processing memories.
Assessment of Target Memories
You’ll work with your therapist to identify the memories that need to be processed. These are typically the memories causing the most emotional distress, such as trauma or negative life experiences.
Desensitization
This is the core of EMDR therapy. During this phase, you’ll focus on the traumatic memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation (usually through guided eye movements). This helps your brain “reprocess” the memory, reducing its emotional intensity over time.
Installation
After the memory is desensitized, your therapist will help you replace negative beliefs with more positive, adaptive ones. For example, transforming thoughts like “I’m not safe” into “I am safe now.”
Body Scan
In this phase, you’ll focus on how your body feels as you think about the memory. Any tension or discomfort will be addressed using additional techniques to release physical stress related to the trauma.
Closure
The therapist will help you return to a place of calm after each session, ensuring you feel grounded and stable before leaving.
Reevaluation
In follow-up sessions, your therapist will assess how you’re feeling and whether further processing is needed. If the memory or issue still causes distress, additional sessions may be used to continue working on it.
Benefits of EMDR Therapy
EMDR has been proven effective in treating a wide range of mental health issues, particularly those related to trauma and PTSD. Some of the key benefits include:
- Rapid Relief from Trauma: Many people experience significant reductions in emotional distress within just a few sessions. This can make EMDR a quicker route to healing compared to traditional talk therapy.
- Reprocessing Negative Beliefs: EMDR doesn’t just focus on reducing emotional distress—it also helps you replace harmful beliefs that may have developed as a result of trauma. This can lead to a more positive outlook and healthier self-esteem.
- Relief from Flashbacks and Nightmares: EMDR helps lessen the intensity of flashbacks and nightmares, making it easier to feel safe and at peace in your daily life.
- Reduced Physical Symptoms: For many, trauma manifests in physical symptoms such as tension, pain, or sleep disturbances. EMDR helps to alleviate these issues by addressing the root cause of the stress.
- Improved Emotional Regulation: As trauma is processed, people often experience better emotional stability, less anxiety, and a greater sense of inner peace.
- Greater Resilience: EMDR helps you rebuild the mental and emotional strength needed to cope with life’s challenges, not just past trauma. This fosters greater resilience in the face of future stress.
Who Can Benefit from EMDR Therapy?
EMDR is effective for individuals who have experienced trauma of all kinds, including:
- Sexual Assault or Abuse
- Childhood Neglect or Abuse
- Natural Disasters
- Car Accidents
- Witnessing Violence
- Loss of a Loved One
- Military Combat or First Responder Experiences
- Grief and Loss
- Phobias or Anxiety Triggers
Even if you don’t have a specific traumatic event in mind, EMDR can help you work through feelings of unease, anxiety, or negative beliefs that are interfering with your ability to move forward.
What to Expect in an EMDR Therapy Session
An EMDR session can feel a bit different from traditional therapy. Rather than sitting and talking through your trauma in detail, EMDR focuses on reprocessing the emotions and beliefs tied to your memories in a way that feels more indirect but equally effective.
Your therapist will guide you through each phase, and they may ask you to focus on a memory while you follow their hand with your eyes, tap your fingers, or listen to alternating sounds. Throughout the process, you’ll always be in control, and your therapist will ensure you’re feeling safe and grounded at all times.
Is EMDR Right for You?
If you’ve been struggling with the lingering effects of trauma, EMDR can offer a powerful path to healing.
It’s a proven, effective method for reducing the emotional pain and distress caused by traumatic memories, and it can help you reclaim your life with a sense of control, peace, and strength.
If you’re ready to explore how EMDR can help you heal from trauma, we’re here to support you every step of the way.
Learn more about how EMDR Therapy can finally help you heal. Our St. Louis Therapists are ready to help you finally overcome your past and take more control of your future!
Our blogs offer some additional insight, tips, and tools for individuals and families looking for therapy. They also talk about ways therapy can help, so you can feel more comfortable and confident to get started today.
Begin EMDR Therapy in St. Louis, MO
When considering EMDR Therapy, taking this first step forward is huge. In our Ballwin, MO counseling clinic, we can help you feel better faster. We can also chat via telehealth for online therapy in Missouri. Truly, anywhere in the state! Taking this first step is a big deal, so you are already making great progress! Just follow these simple steps and we will get started.
1. Reach out to Marble Wellness
A member of our professional Admin Team will be your first point of contact. She’ll get you set up with the best therapist for your needs and talk first appointment details.
2. Meet with one of our EMDR Therapists
We have members of our team who are trained in and skilled at EMDR Therapy. They will work with you to personalize a plan for relief and healing.
3. Feel more fully yourself, comfortably
Whether it’s in-person, online, or park therapy, you and your therapist will use their skills and your strengths to help you start to live a happy, fulfilling life.
Other Mental Health Services at Marble Wellness
At Marble Wellness, our goal is simple: Counseling services designed to help set you on a path of living a more fulfilled, calm, and happy life. We specialize in anxiety, depression, grief, chronic illness, therapy for men, couples, and maternal overwhelm. Our maternal mental health team can also help new moms with various postpartum concerns, moms in the thick of parenting, and moms with teens. We can also chat from wherever you are in the state with online therapy in Missouri. No matter where you are in your journey, we would love to support you.
Have Questions About Starting Therapy?
Taking this step is a big deal, so you are already making great progress! We are here to help answer your questions and move forward.