What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a form of therapy that helps people heal from trauma or other distressing life experiences. EMDR therapy has been extensively researched and has demonstrated effectiveness for trauma.

EMDR is effective across many areas, including:

• Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
• Chronic Illness and medical issues
• Depression and bipolar disorders
• Dissociative disorders
• Eating disorders
• Grief and loss
• Pain
• Performance anxiety
• Personality disorders
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma and stress-related issues
• Sexual assault
• Sleep disturbance
• Substance abuse and addiction
• Violence and abuse

EMDR is effective across many areas, including:

Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process involves communication between the amygdala (the alarm signal for stressful events), the hippocampus (which assists with learning, including memories about safety and danger), and the prefrontal cortex (which analyses and controls behaviour and emotion). While many times traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, some traumatic experiences may not be processed without help.

Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create feelings of overwhelm, of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.” EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved.”

How is EMDR different from other therapies?

One of the advantages of EMDR therapy is that, unlike some other therapy approaches, it does not require you to talk in detail about the distressing issue. EMDR enables the brain to access its natural healing process rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviors resulting from the distressing issue. For many clients, EMDR therapy can be completed in fewer sessions than other psychotherapies.

Client experiences with EMDR

This video, produced by the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA), features clients talking, in their own words, about their personal experiences of EMDR Therapy

TCTSY is an empirically validated, clinical intervention for complex trauma or chronic, treatment-resistant post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Developed at the Trauma Center in Brookline, Massachusetts, Trauma Center Trauma-Sensitive Yoga (TCTSY) is a program of the Center for Trauma and Embodiment at Justice Resource Institute.

The TCTSY program qualified for inclusion in the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP) database published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The TCTSY methodology is based on central components of the hatha style of yoga, where participants engage in a series of physical forms and movements. Elements of standard hatha yoga are modified to maximize experiences of empowerment and to cultivate a more positive relationship with one's body.

Unlike many public yoga classes, TCTSY does not use physical hands-on adjustments to influence a participant's physical form. Rather, TCTSY presents opportunities for participants to be in charge of themselves based on a felt sense of their own body. Although TCTSY employs physical forms and movements, the emphasis is not on the external expression or appearance (i.e. doing it"right"), or receiving the approval of an external authority. Rather, the focus is on the internal experience of the participant.

This shift in orientation, from the external to the internal, is a key attribute of TCTSY as a complementary treatment for complex trauma. With our approach, the power resides within the individual, not the TCTSY facilitator (TCTSY-F). Further, by focusing on the felt sense of the body to inform choice-making, TCTSY allows participants to restore their connection of mind and body and cultivate a sense of agency that is often compromised as a result of trauma.

All TCTSY facilitators, staff, trainers, and mentors are required to agree and adhere to our ethical guidelines, or as we call them, Ways of Being.

Body awareness is a powerful tool and intervention. Somatic mindfulness creates mind-body integration where it had been lacking. It allows you to use your body responses as your source of information without letting these sensations overpower you. Even unpleasant body sensations can become your allies instead of being your enemies. This kind of therapeutic work softens and reduces the hypervigilant threat response and hyperarousal in the nervous system. Fight or flight contributes to many physical health problems. It is evident in science that the connection between psychic experience and physical health is enormous. Full embodiment in the present moment can be a truly healing experience. The only way to explain this is by experiencing it.

Inner child work is a homecoming. It is a way to address our needs that haven't been met as children and heal the attachment wounds we've developed. The impressions made on you as a child, by your parents or other important figures are imprinted in you. The “wounded Inner child” or a “shadow child” encompasses the deeply rooted negative beliefs about yourself, the world around you, relationships, and the future. Think about this: If as a young girl or a boy, all you ever wanted was to be seen, heard, and understood by your mom or another important figure…but instead, your mom yelled at you, dismissed you, was always too busy to hear you, criticized you for being too fat or too thin, and was emotionally unavailable, it is no wonder that when, for example, your partner is ten minutes late you “lose it”. You can’t help these feelings of anger, hopelessness, sadness, and clinginess. Perhaps you developed a negative core belief that “Nobody cares” and “I am invisible”. Even if your partner truly cares. To deal with feeling depressed or anxious or better to avoid them, you might develop a protective mechanism. A coping mechanism that gives you a false sense of security. Avoidance and behaving in a way that keeps you away from sitting in with what and how you truly feel. You probably play a role, pretend to be the funny one, always smiling and being loud at the party, when in fact you just want to show your vulnerability. You play these roles and you believe that this is who you are. Others also believe that that is you. It is exhausting to pretend all your life. Isn’t it?

Who you truly are is yet to show. More often than not in therapy. In the hours that you decide to invest in yourself and to get better. Homecoming, healing the wounded child, or working on these negative beliefs can provide you with an essential healing process. When done in the hands of the right therapist it helps you make sense of your experiences. But for you to be able to go ‘home’ you need a strong adult, who feels safe, and sturdy first. Developing these abilities is the first step in my therapy space. We work to arrive at safety and control over yourself before stepping further and going back to offer you the good parenting that you need and long for.

Trauma-Informed Stabilization Treatment was developed to provide a trauma-informed approach to the challenges of treating self-destructive behavior. Based on theoretical principles drawn from the neuroscience research on trauma and structural dissociation theory, TIST offers a treatment approach that integrates mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, ego state techniques, and Internal Family Systems. It has been used successfully to address the challenges of treating individuals with diagnoses of complex PTSD, borderline personality, bipolar disorder, addictive and eating disorders, and dissociative disorders. Because it contextualizes self-destructive behavior as trauma-related, you feel less pathologized, increasing your motivation to overcome self-destructive impulses as a step toward overcoming trauma.

This model empowers trauma survivors to overcome self-destructive and addictive behaviors. This approach focuses on treating the effects of traumatic events, as opposed to treating the event itself, and on managing unsafe and addictive impulses as trauma-driven rather than manipulative and attention-seeking. TIST focuses on helping you feel more connected, accepting, and self-compassionate, guiding you to use your own capacity for mindful observation.