Psychological Services
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR began as a therapy specifically for the treatment of people with PTSD. It involves shorter exposures to the traumatic memory than other exposure therapies. At the same time, the client attends to bilateral dual attention stimuli such as eye movements, taps or tones. It also includes attention to physical sensations and cognitive reframing. EMDR is based on the premise that our brain has the natural ability to reorganize the response to a distressful life experience from an initial state of dysfunction and disequilibrium to a state of adaptive resolution (The Adaptive Information Processing Model).
Resolving the Distress
When we experience a distressing event, we normally experience an initial stress response that may include feelings of agitation, fear and anger, physiological stress responses such as increased high rate and blood pressure, and irrational thoughts such as excessive selfcriticism. With time, we are normally able to think about the event, talk about it with friends, dream about it and naturally process it.
We are able to resolve the distress, learn from it and return to a balanced state of being. However, at times, when someone experiences a traumatic event or is exposed to persistent stress during a sensitive development life stage, their natural capacity for adaptive information processing is disrupted.
The traumatic event becomes “stuck” or “frozen in time”. Remembering the distressing event, may feel like living it all over again with the same intensity of emotions and sensations. This affects tremendously how someone views themselves and relate to others.
EMDR appears to have a direct effect on how the brain processes information. It enables the brain to get unstuck and return to its normal functioning. After successful EMDR work, one is able to remember what happened without reliving the distressing images, sounds, and feelings. The traumatic event becomes less upsetting and a person is able to move forward in a positive way.
EMDR Canada emdrcanada.org, EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) emdria.siteym.com.
Somatic Experiencing
SE was developed by Peter A. Levine, PhD to address the effects of trauma. Levine developed this approach after observing that prey animals, whose lives are routinely threatened in the wild, are able to recover readily by physically releasing the energy they accumulate during stressful events. Humans, on the other hand, often override these natural ways of regulating the nervous system with feelings of shame and pervasive thoughts, judgments, and fears. SE aims to help people move past the place where they might be “stuck” in processing a traumatic event.
SE adds a significant dimension to verbal psychotherapy by including bodily experience as correlative, causative and caused by psychological experience. It is grounded in the belief that not only are thought, emotion and bodily experience inextricably, but also that change can be brought about in one domain of experience by mindfully accessing another. The work of Somatics and SE is additionally informed by engaging directly with the client’s bodily experience by utilizing a wide range of somatic techniques to facilitate:
Safe and Sound Protocol
What is SSP?
Developed by Dr. Stephen Porges and based on Polyvagal Theory. The SSP uses the auditory system as a portal to the vagus complex, which controls our physiological state. SSP is designed to reduce stress and auditory sensitivity while enhancing social engagement and resilience. Once physiological state is regulated, we can accelerate or enhance subsequent therapy.
The SSP is a research-based therapy showing significant results in the following areas:
What Is Traumatic Incident Reduction?
TIR is a brief, simple, precisely structured approach, it takes place within a person-centered context. Sessions are structured in a client focused manner to address one incident or series of closely related incidents in one session. In the great majority of cases, a TIR session ends with the client feeling complete and satisfied that what has been opened up in that session is complete.
Traumatic Incident Reduction Association https://www.tira.org/