Hope+Wellness

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy

Kind, effective and high quality treatment

EMDR therapy

In life, there are traumatic events that you may experience for which there are no words, but which impact you deeply in a way that affects every area of your life.

Trauma can be difficult to heal from — it can be stored within your body and experienced as flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, and distressing emotions. Trauma can make it difficult to have fulfilling relationships, to build a new life, and affect feelings of safety, ease, and confidence in your life.

What is EMDR therapy and how can it help me?

emdr therapy can help you find relief and freedom from intense, overwhelming emotions

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy is an effective, science-based treatment for trauma that can help provide you with a way to process your trauma and to overcome:

  • PTSD

  • Complex trauma

  • Childhood trauma

  • Depression

  • Anxiety

  • Traumatic events and stressors

  • Emotional, sexual, physical, or spiritual abuse,

  • Grief and loss

  • Attachment and relationship concerns

  • Low self-esteem.

If you are experiencing any of the above concerns, EMDR therapy may be able to help you find relief. EMDR can help you heal and reprocess traumatic memories in a safe, supported way, at a pace that is comfortable to you, to help you break out of old patterns so that your trauma has less of a hold on you. It can help address the root causes of your issues so that you can move to build a fulfilling life of greater meaning and wholeness.

How does EMDR therapy work?

innovative neuroscience to help you reprocess traumatic memories and stress

EMDR therapy uses neuroscience to help shift how your brain and body process memories and traumatic stress. It works via something called Bilateral Dual Attention Stimulation (BL-DAS), which includes eye movements, knee tapping, butterfly tapping, alternating auditory sounds. In this way, we are able to not only address cognitive components of trauma, but somatic components with your nervous system to help you reprocess your trauma and traumatic memories so that they feel less intense and overwhelming.

 What can I expect during my EMDR sessions?

  1. history taking and rapport building

    Your therapist will provide you with a safe, secure environment and relationship for you to begin your therapeutic journey, at a pace that is comfortable to you. During this time, your therapist will gather information on your history of traumatic events or concerns that you would like to work through. As part of this, you will discuss any related core beliefs as well as their impact on your current life. Your therapist will also support you in exploring and processing 5 to 10 past experiences that contributed to your core beliefs.

2. preparation

Your therapist will help orient you in understanding what the process of EMDR looks like and answer any questions you may have. You will also learn self-regulating and grounding skills that you can turn to if you’re feeling overwhelmed during a session.

3. Assessment and treatment plan

You and your therapist will collaboratively develop a clear treatment plan of events, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that you’d like to target for reprocessing.

4. desensitization and installation — reprocessing

You will practice independently using your resourcing tools during this phase of treatment. Reprocessing through eye-movement or other auditory, visual, or tactile bilateral dual stimulation will then begin, and you will be supported in creating/installing new positive core beliefs to replace traumatic or negative ones.

5. closure

Once the reprocessing has occurred, your therapist will check that you feel grounded and calm. You may be asked to share about your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the traumatic event, as well as how you’re feeling in your body, as you return to the present moment.

6. Processing

Processing will continue occurring even after the session, so you will be asked keep a log of what happens between sessions. Follow up sessions will help you process the previous session and things happening between sessions, so that you will be fully supported in your journey with EMDR. :)

FAQs

  • That’s totally okay! Your therapist can work from a few different angles, including (a) any sensory information related to the memory or the negative core belief; (b) the current impact; (c) the fears of future interference.

  • The first phase of gathering information and resourcing will be more than 1 session. The "EM" portion of EMDR will also take a full session. It is very important that the clinicians see you for a follow-up appointment to process the continued reprocessing that takes place between sessions.

  • Same as in-person. The eye-movement (or chosen BLS) can be used in the same way as in person. There are also other sensory options, such as the butterfly hug, knee tapping, alternating auditory sounds in earbuds, and a computerized ball that can be implemented virtually

  • This depends on the client, the comfort level, the frequency of sessions, how many memories and core beliefs the client wants to reprocess, and other factors.

  • EMDR is preferably conducted simultaneously with talk therapy to process the EMDR sessions and learn new habits/skills based on new cognitions as well as work toward other goals. If you would like to talk to one of our therapists, please contact info@hope-wellness.com.

“It takes enormous trust and courage to allow yourself to remember.”
— Bessel A. van der Kolk

You are not alone. we can help.

At Hope+Wellness, we provide exceptional psychotherapy services to empower people to live happier, healthier lives. Our services are grounded in evidence-based treatments that suggest an important interconnectedness between mind, body, life experience, and wellness, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and mindfulness-based therapies. Our office is located in Falls Church, Virginia. We serve the McLean, Great Falls, Falls Church, Arlington, Alexandria, and the greater Washington DC region. We will work together to help you heal and develop the skills to live fully aware, fully resilient, fully peaceful, mindful, and alive.