The Benefits of EMDR Therapy

People that know me as a therapist in Denver have probably heard me talk about EMDR therapy.

As a therapist I love to use EMDR therapy to help people find healing in their lives that sometimes can’t be accomplished with other types of counseling. This is why I love to tell people about EMDR.

I can remember when I first finished my EMDR training our teacher said “now go out there and be an EMDR therapy evangelist!”

I suppose I could be called an EMDR therapy evangelist.

I believe in the benefits of EMDR therapy because I’ve had the privilege of experiencing the impact it’s had in my own life. If you would like to hear more about my own experience with EMDR therapy you can check out my post titled How EMDR Therapy Changed My Life!

The other reason I love EMDR therapy is because of the powerful impact I’ve seen it have in the lives of people I get to work with as a therapist.

As a counselor it’s so fun when I get to hear people tell me how much better they feel because of the work they’ve done through counseling.

I’ve seen EMDR therapy help people work through things in their life that they didn’t even realize was causing a problem.

I believe in EMDR therapy because of the powerful impact it’s had on my own life as a therapist.

EMDR Therapy Is A Great Alternative To “Talk Therapy”

One of the benefits of therapy is having a safe place to talk and process things in life. This processing of emotions and thoughts is what makes counseling helpful.

Sometimes there are things in life that need a little more work than processing through the traditional “talk therapy.”

One of the hallmarks of EMDR therapy is that very little talking is actually required. EMDR therapy is all about allowing your thoughts, emotions, and body sensations to be processed without having to talk.

Some people find it helpful to talk about what they’re experiencing while other people prefer not having to talk about their experience.

There are even cases where a person’s traumatic experience was so painful they can’t find words to share. Having the opportunity to still do great work in therapy without having to talk about your pain can be very helpful at times.

EMDR Therapy Focuses On The Body And The Mind

There are a lot of different types of counseling or therapy available today. For a number of reasons therapy has often focused on how your thoughts or behaviors can be changed.

Many of the modern types of therapy tend have a strong focus on your thoughts. Perhaps the most common type counseling is known as Cognitive Behavior Therapy or CBT.

Research has shown CBT to be a very beneficial and effective form of therapy for certain problems that people experience.

It wasn’t until I began practicing EMDR therapy that I realized how much was missing from some of the cognitive or behavioral types of counseling I was trained to use.

EMDR therapy opened my eyes to a whole world of therapy that I was missing! I began to realize the importance of our body and how it’s related to our emotions and thoughts.

There’s such an important connection between our minds, our bodies, and our emotions and EMDR therapy focuses on how all 3 of these affect our wellbeing.

As I’ve continued to practice EMDR therapy I’ve seen the impact it can have for people who’ve never explored how their body has been affected by their life experiences.

EMDR Therapy has helped me realize the importance of our body and how it’s related to our emotions and thoughts.

EMDR Therapy Can Help You Become Aware of Unknown Problems

One of the areas I specialize in counseling is helping people recover from trauma. Something I’ve learned over the years is that traumatic or abusive things can begin to seem normal when it’s all you know or it’s been happening for a long time.

I’ve had many clients say things like, “my childhood doesn’t have any affect on my life today,” or “that’s just the way life was” and later discover how their earlier experiences in life are still affecting them today.

The wonderful thing about EMDR is that it helps you understand how things are impacting your life from a new perspective.

EMDR therapy can help you recognize things in your life that you didn’t even realize were affecting you.

I’ve seen several people work through things in their life they thought they’d already dealt with, or didn’t know they needed to work through.

One of the unique parts of EMDR therapy is that you can tap into your body’s own self healing abilities.

It was through an experience with EMDR that I recognized some of the work I needed to do in my own life as a therapist that I hadn’t ever realized.

A hallmark of any good therapy is an increase in self awareness, and EMDR therapy can bring awareness to things in a way that simply talking may not be able to accomplish.

EMDR Therapy Helps You Work Through The Root Cause Of A Problem

I often tell people there are 2 important parts of therapy. One part is learning how to manage a negative feeling or emotion when it comes up. The other part is working through whatever’s causing the feeling to come to the surface.

Both parts of this process are important. Sometimes it’s necessary to learn how to tolerate a negative feeling before you work on healing the cause of it.

Other times it can be beneficial to deal with the root of your problem so you don’t feel like your constantly managing your symptoms.

EMDR therapy will help you get to the root cause of a problem. It’s specifically designed to help you find what’s causing your discomfort so that you can find long term relief in your life.

As an EMDR therapist in Denver I help people get to the root of a number of problems such as anxiety, unresolved grief, symptoms of PTSD, working through a traumatic memory, depression that can’t seem to be lifted, and even problems with anger.

If you’ve struggled to move forward in your life or have found that some of the more traditional forms of counseling haven’t been able to get you where you want to be, I would encourage you to find a qualified EMDR therapist in your area.

You can learn more by checking out the EMDR International Association.