Somatic EMDR is a method of therapy that helps cultivate an ability to stay present, notice, and tolerate one’s own inner experience. Often, as a result of challenges experiences in childhood, or present day overwhelm, we can disconnect from ourselves to protect against further harm.  Modern day researchers talk about the key element in healing is to stay connected to our present moments and stay connected on our layers of ourselves including our physical, emotional, and mental experiences. Here we help to identify the moments we are disconnecting and find the tools to bring ourselves back to the present. 

Sometimes this can look like building resources to stay safe in your present moment or processing through events from the past or present that can pull us out or trigger us to avoid the present pain or discomfort.

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We are all meant to go through day to day and take in information through all of our senses. Our bodies experience this and our minds make meaning and associations – often creating emotional and physical reactions. We also have a deep internal drive for completion however sometimes events in our lives don’t allow full resolution. As a drive to protect us, our bodies get stuck in these incomplete responses and figure out coping tools to work around these. This can often look like depression, anxiety, physical symptoms, stress, or emotional intensity.

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Our minds often want to figure out what is happening and explore ‘why’ we are feeling this way. A cognitive approach such as this or talk therapy, can be helpful in some ways yet tends to only address the symptoms and misses the deeper internal drive to maintain balance in the system. If we focus on what is happening in the present moment and in the body – this meaning tends to come naturally and often with more resolution so this internal drive to adapt is no longer needed and allows us to release the stuck patterns.

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Trusting the process is the key. Through this process, we learn to trust our own inner wisdom and innate abilities to resolve these internal processes. Everyone experiences and perceives their experiences so differently and this approach isn’t a standard one size fits all – we are working with your body to guide us into your own process and find your own resources for healing. This is a profound difference as we can target specifically your unique needs and as a result you learn to trust yourself in a deeper way.

My job is to closely track the dynamics and sensations happening – often slowing things down to bring more awareness to process and integrate. We will bring awareness to your thoughts, emotions, nervous system, muscles, organs, diaphragm systems, imagination, intuition, and all 5 senses – as all contribute to complete and thorough processing. At times, we safely hold awareness to the places that have been avoided or dismissed as this is a necessary piece for completion. During these moments, bringing in EMDR or bilateral stimulation is helpful to sustain awareness and reduce discomfort. 

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Bilateral stimulation looks like applying left-right stimulation to help the brain work more efficiently and with greater resiliency. This tends to create an increase in activity between brain hemispheres which increases the effectiveness of the reprocessing. 

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The results allow us to cultivate the ability to remain present and to develop a new relationship with our bodies. This tends to have a ripple effect on our emotional, mental, and relational lives as well as our experiences of living in the world.