What to Expect, Understand, and Achieve with EMDR Therapy

Jan 272 min read

Updated: Mar 4

By: Maria "Mica" Salazar Istre

Many people seek counseling to resolve their cumulative trauma and find that traditional talk therapy isn't achieving the results they would like. They might experience disturbances in sleep, eating habits, social life, motivation levels, and difficulty concentrating. The goal of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy is to achieve equilibrium and a newfound perspective of the world, others, and themselves. Oftentimes, our trauma is caused by others and the messages they said to use verbally or with their actions. My clients will often internalize the behaviors of others to say that they are less than or not good enough. It's important to understand the benefits and risks of EMDR Therapy to achieve the best results possible.

Trauma treatment has progressed over the years and neuroscience now allows us to use EMDR Therapy to help resolve past traumatic incidents and begin to balance our central nervous system (CNS). Talk therapy can help us gain insights into the areas we need to address and is highly beneficial for reflection, exploration, and learning how to cope with life stressors. In fact, this is part of initial phases of EMDR Therapy and helpful in progressing to the desensitization and reprocessing stages.

EMDR Therapy differs in that we have a strict protocol we have to follow to achieve the best results. We first evaluate for other factors like dissociation, depression, ADHD, anxiety, etc. This will help us tailor the EMDR process to your unique needs. The key difference in this form of therapy is the Bilateral Stimulation (BLS) that integrates both sides of our bodies through either eye movement, tapping, auditory, or pulsators. The eye movement is known to mimic our natural Rapid Eye Movement (REM) that we experience when we sleep. REM sleep allows our bodies and brain to process, heal, and consilidate information from our daily lives. Without the proper sleep and coping skills to process events throughout our lives, we remain stuck in reliving or re-experiencing some of the worst events in their lives.

Once key events are resolved, clients will experience improvement in sleep, ability to relax, remaining present, and a newfound perspective of their lives. It seems like an idealistic and unrealistic outcome for some and may require years of EMDR Therapy, but the outcomes are quick. If you are ready to start your healing journey and improve your quality of life, give us a call today to schedule an intake with Mica.

To learn more about EMDR, visit www.EDMRIA.com.

Maria "Mica" Salazar Istre is the Owner and Clinical Director of Tree of Life Counseling and Consulting. Mica is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), National Board Certified Counselor (NCC), Certified First Responder Counselor (CFRC), and EMDR Certified Therapist by EDMRIA. She has over 7 years of experiences, 300 hours of trauma training, and is Licensed in Louisiana, Georgia, Texas, and Florida.