Our SPECIALTY: EMDR & cognitive restructuring

EMDR has become known as the most effective treatment for trauma exposure and other distressing events. This approach utilizes bilateral stimulation (eye movement, audio, and/or tactile sensations) in order to activate your brain's natural, automatic information processing system. The bilateral stimulation has been found to approximate or mimic our natural Rapid Eye Movement (REM) state. When a distressing event from your life feels like it still carries an emotional intensity that feels outside of your control and you want to decrease that intensity, we can utilize a fairly simple and straight-forward desensitization method. However, if you feel as if your brain and body have generated a negative cognition or negative meaning attached to the distressing event, then we can utilize a more comprehensive method of replacing and reprocessing that negative meaning or negative cognition (i.e., "I am bad, broken or defective" or "I am responsible or I am to blame"). The Department of Veterans Affairs and The Department of Defense recognize EMDR as the most effective trauma treatment due to the amount of Randomized Control Trials revealing that EMDR is 100% effective in reducing posttraumatic symptomatology for those whom experienced a one-time traumatic event and nearly 80% effective for those whom have experienced cumulative traumatic exposures. This approach gives participants the best chance of finding themselves not just surviving trauma but thriving due to a renewed sense of their life purpose sometimes called posttraumatic growth.