What is EMDR?

"EMDR" stands for "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing" ~ a revolutionary technique for dealing with trauma that can include moving one's eyes while concentrating on memories or sensations. It allows you to experience and work through traumatic memories in fast and powerful ways that allow you to heal. 

EMDR is one of the most effective therapies for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a disorder that commonly affects combat veterans, torture victims, as well as victims of domestic violence, child abuse, rape, assault, and stalking.  Both the American Psychiatric Association and the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense strongly recommend EMDR as an empirically supported therapy for trauma with demonstrated effectiveness.  

EMDR is also quite effective in therapy to address the following:

• Anxiety
• Depression
• Anger Management
• Grief, Loss, & Bereavement
• Panic Attacks
• Phobias
• Social Anxiety and Performance Anxiety
• Automobile and Motorcycle Accident Trauma

 

I am happy to offer EMDR to adults and children in my Oakland therapy practice.

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EMDR Theory

Philip Manfield came up with a wonderful way to describe how EMDR works, which I call the "island metaphor":

When a person experiences a traumatic event, it is very common to isolate that event within your mind, as a way of protecting yourself from feelings that can be very frightening and overwhelming. This event becomes like an island within your mind, and you cut off all roads leading from that island to the mainland, so that the island becomes isolated in space and time. The culture and traditions of the people who live on the island are lost in time, as the rest of world moves on. For some people, this island might be a quaint place, like visiting some kind of Quaker colony that uses only horses or bicycles for transportation, but more often than not the island is a terrifying place, more like a Jurassic Park, filled with monsters and demons.

The problem is that the island is never really all that isolated. From time to time, people from the mainland wander onto the island, and have no idea how to escape or handle the monsters who live there. We get stuck in compulsive behaviors. We repeat destructive relationships. Overwhelming emotions interrupt our lives and dreams, causing panic, fear, anger, or sadness. People from the island also wander into the mainland, where they can appear like cavemen, bizarre and illiterate, unable to function in the adult world, unable to work, have intimate relationships, or communicate with others.

EMDR allows us to carefully rebuild bridges and phone lines to the island so that the skill and perspective of our adult selves can help manage and tame the monsters that were overwhelming to us at the time we experienced the trauma. We recognize that we are now safe and able to take care of ourselves in ways that we were not in the past. As we integrate the island with mainland, we often find hidden treasures - valuable insights, abilities, and gifts - that have been waiting for us to develop, among the culture of the people who inhabit the island. In a world without monsters, we become able to experience more of who we are with love and joy.

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EMDR and Children in Oakland

I am one of very few EMDR therapists specifically trained to use EMDR with children in Oakland. I use it to effectively treat symptoms of physical and sexual abuse, foster care placement, family reunification, domestic violence, and a wide variety of traumatic concerns.

I am trained to use EMDR with storytelling. I also combine EMDR with somatic therapy to help children and caregivers both work through difficult material and grow closer.

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