Nearly everyone experiences something at some point in their life that exceeds their resources to cope.
When you experience something that exceeds your resources to cope, you might begin to develop feelings of toxic shame, anxiety, mood disruption, sleep disruption, isolation or avoidance of people or places or situations, impulsivity, irritability, aggressiveness, relationship problems, or feelings of un-safety in your relationships, in the world around you, and even within yourself.
I integrate concepts from Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB), Polyvagal Theory (PVT), and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help you feel a sense of safety and connection and experience a shift away from negative things that you may believe about yourself towards more adaptive, positive beliefs about yourself and the world around you.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
WHAT IS EMDR?
EMDR therapy is an extensively researched method that helps people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms. EMDR is also demonstrating to be very effective when applied to anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and other distressing experiences. EMDR treatment can relieve emotional distress, reduce physiological arousal, and support more adaptive thoughts- this can lead to things like improved self-esteem, greater sense of empowerment, elimination of toxic shame or self-blame, and resolution of anger issues.
HOW DOES EMDR WORK?
It is consistently demonstrated through the application of EMDR that the brain naturally moves toward healing (adaptive processing) just like the body naturally moves towards healing it has a physical wound. Because of the way EMDR facilitates the healing process from the bottom up and inside out, it tends to be more efficient and more permanent. Imagine looking in the mirror at yourself and telling yourself something you WANT to believe. How many times will you have to tell yourself before you actually start to believe it? I often hear clients say, “Well, I logically KNOW _______ is true, but it doesn’t FEEL true.” No matter how much they try to “logic” themselves into knowing/believing something, it just doesn’t fully translate into their felt self. Now imagine if you could know the thing both logically AND in your felt self! No more arguments with yourself—you just…KNOW!
We have the potential to reach a whole different stage of healing and thriving by employing EMDR treatment to resolve the “stuck” places!
EMDR supports the healing process from the bottom up and from the inside out, resulting in more efficient and more permanent healing!
Polyvagal Theory
Polyvagal Theory considers the ways a person's autonomic nervous system operates when the drive to survive competes with the longing to connect.
Your nervous system is constantly looking for signals of safety or danger and interpreting whether to activate protective strategies vs allowing you to relax into the feelings of safety and connection.
When your nervous system interprets danger, chemicals and energy are released that results in a hyper arousal that allows you to fight or flee to get to safety. This could present like always feeling ready to fight, being highly reactive and fused with big expressive emotions (as if you ARE the emotion rather than you are experiencing the emotion). This can be helpful if you really DO need to activate and fight to stay alive, but our nervous system was not designed to sustain this state for months, years, or a lifetime.
The chronic activation of this stress pathway can lead to negative physiological and psychological effects, including anxiety and increased risk of health problems such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
Another way your nervous system might try to access safety in the face of interpretations of threat, is to shut down or detach. This is called hypo arousal, and it happens when the nervous system down shifts to try to survive by conserving resources. It can look like flattening out, feeling emotionless or disconnected from people or experiences around you, “doom scrolling,” drinking too much alcohol, smoking too much pot, or binging too much food or too many video games. “Going somewhere else” in your mind might be a way to creatively “escape” when no other escape or way to stop what is happening.
While this detachment may have once been a helpful strategy to survive, it may now be the thing that interferes with your ability to engage in rewarding relationships and the world around you.
As we support your nervous system to feel safe and engaged, you will be able to think more creatively, recognize possibilities, dream, set goals, and execute the steps to meet those goals—all while enjoying the process!
Interpersonal Neurobiology
Interpersonal neurobiology (IPNB) offers a holistic approach to mental health that considers how the brain and mind develop in the context of relationships and interactions with other minds.
Destructive, insecure attachments have negative effects on your brain and body. Likewise, positive, secure attachments have positive effects on your brain and body. Because the brain continues to grow throughout life, we can leverage a lifetime of healing benefits through engaging in healthy relationship attachments!
By employing IPNB concepts, I can help you heal from past traumas, increase your self-trust, and learn to facilitate healthy meaningful relationships that provide a sense of belonging, connection, and emotional support!
Discover something new in YOUR life!
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Discover something new in YOUR life! —