EMDR Therapy for BIPOC Women in Granada Hills, Northridge & online across CA
Re-orient your relationship to your past.
Was talk therapy helpful but not transformative?
Maybe you’ve been in therapy for years, and you’ve grown in your relationship with yourself.
You can experience a wider range of emotions than before.
You’ve started to speak up for your needs and boundaries more, but you’re not sure how you will be received.
Or rather, you know how you will be received–some people will ignore you, some will push back, and some may guilt trip you.
“What about me?” they essentially cry.
So you falter and re-draw the lines.
Maybe someone recommended EMDR therapy to you because it’s different than traditional talk therapy.You’re curious, but nervous–will this open up Pandora’s box?
Can I control my reactions?
What will happen?
Can I face my past stuff?
(It was so neatly tucked away at the bottom of my drawer. Why pull it up now?)
But you know the truth. It’s not tucked away. The seams of it are starting to show–
in your interactions with colleagues, when you overthink and clam up because you know they will see you as the imposter that you are
or when your body has all these weird sensations and you’re jumping to conclusions about what it means
or in your inability to fall asleep at night because your brain is busy conjuring up all the ways your next family gathering might fall apart.
EMDR offers a new way to process your Costco warehouse of feelings, so you can re-integrate with the life you have now, and the life you want to live into.
EMDR is an evidence-based approach to therapy that re-orients your relationship to your past, present and future.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.It uses bilateral stimulation like eye movements to tax the working memory as you mindfully hold distressing memories. It also helps with building resources like peaceful place and container to stabilize emotions and increase agency in managing uncomfortable sensations.
Clients are often surprised at how quickly their emotions and thoughts can shift, and the insights that occur as they reprocess moments.While we do revisit distressing moments, we do it in a clear, structured way so you feel contained and stay within your window of tolerance. You will feel a range of emotions, and it may feel quite disturbing at times, and you will get through it. I will be with you the whole time so you can stay contained.
Clients have shared that they feel more empowered and less anxious after EMDR processing.Clients have processed childhood abuse, health traumas, parents’ divorces, imposter syndrome, conflicts with family, complex deaths of loved ones. They leave the room feeling more resilient and adaptive at dealing with unpleasant upcoming situations.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”― Viktor E. Frankl
EMDR can help you stabilize, resource and feel more agency.
Together, we can revisit those painful memories and reprocess them at a speed that your nervous system can tolerate. You will be surprised at your ability to adapt to previously feared scenarios. You will move into living a more easeful life, filled with challenges that you’re excited to face.
EMDR is broken down into 8 phases:
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Gain clarity on history with particular attention to distressing events bringing you in today.
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Build rapport and facilitate resourcing so you have tools to stabilize changes in emotions.
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Identify event to reprocess, along with corresponding core beliefs, level of disturbance, and validity of positive cognition
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Engage in eye movements or other bi-lateral stimulation (BLS) while focusing on the distressing event.
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Reinforce with BLS the positive cognition associated with the event
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Hold both the positive cognition and the disturbing event while you scan your body and engage in BLS, until you get to a neutral place.
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Return to a state of calm and debrief session. Review tools to stabilize during the week.
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In the next session, explore the effects of EMDR on current functioning. Explore if new targets need to be processed, and if needed, start back in Phase 1.
EMDR Therapy can help you…
Tap into
your resources
Welcome and validate all the feelings that surface
Claim
your agency
Befriend your body and honor all it is telling you
Come to peace
with your past
Feel empowered to show up for your life as the protagonist
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If you want support with regulating your emotions or revisiting painful past experiences, EMDR is a great fit for you! If you feel stuck, EMDR might help you dig deeper and shed light on what’s holding you back.
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I use EMDR’s resources like peaceful place and container with nearly all clients, and clients usually notice shifts in their breathing, concentration, heartrate, muscle tension right away. I encourage clients to practice resourcing during the week to reinforce their positive beliefs and build agency.
For processing, I make sure to take time to obtain history, stabilize, and assemble resources first to build a secure container to reprocess traumatic events. The first few phases can take weeks to months. Depending on the event we’re processing, it can take one session or multiple sessions to allow sufficient time to move through whatever shows up, and then to move into updating your system with more nuanced, adaptive beliefs. Your body will recalibrate to become less tense and more calm.
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While EMDR can catalyze a range of thoughts, feelings, memories, dreams, etc. to emerge, you will feel equipped with tools and resources to manage when you’re between sessions. During processing, you will notice these shifts with curiosity and detachment, and you will eventually move to a different observation. All are important to notice; it is giving us valuable information.
I will be keeping a close eye on your reactions to keep you within the window of tolerance. If you do notice feeling a strong reaction, you won’t stay there long. As you feel the emotions, you will notice the shifts in corresponding body sensations as your nervous system releases trauma.
FAQ
Let’s face the past so you can walk into your future with hope.
Book a free 20-minute phone consult today.