About trauma
What is trauma?
Trauma occurs when an experience overwhelms your ability to cope, whether that be a large catastrophic event or a build up of smaller distressing events.
Three in four Australians will experience an event that can cause psychological trauma in their lifetime. Traumatic events include emotional or sexual abuse, motor-vehicle accidents, bullying, relationship conflict, death of a loved one, neglect, illness, experiencing or witnessing violence.
Other traumatic events include difficult life experiences related to loss, humiliation, rejection, criticism, or exclusion.
The impact of trauma is deep and complex.
The problems that arise afterwards can impair our physical and emotional wellbeing. The way we see ourselves, our relationships and activities, and our ability to feel safe in the world can be turned upside down.
About EMDR Therapy
What to Expect
Your psychologist will take a history to help clarify the cause of your current symptoms, and identify which memories are linked with your emotions and core beliefs. After a few preparation sessions, you and your psychologist will then choose key memories to process using EMDR.
EMDR therapy does not require talking in detail about what has happened to you or completing homework between sessions.
During EMDR processing you will be guided through very brief episodes of recalling the distress, whilst introducing a sensory task that taxes your short term memory. This may involve bilateral eye movements, tapping or sounds.
You can expect to experience some difficult emotions during EMDR processing, however this distress passes rapidly.
Clients report that at the end of EMDR processing the image is more distant and difficult to recall, and can be remembered without distress. They report that their symptoms are reduced, more positive thoughts come to mind and they feel more confident in stressful situations.
Have you been affected by trauma?
Have events in your past altered the way you see yourself, changed your view of the world, made you more negative, distrustful, angry or anxious?
You can continue to experience distressing symptoms years after trauma because your brain’s limbic system is triggered by everyday stressors, reactivating these stored sensations of fear and helplessness again and again. This explains why you might have noticed that your ability to cope has reduced over time.
During a traumatic event your brain cannot process information adequately. Traumatic memories remain, stored raw and unprocessed in your brain's limbic system, an isolated memory network, disconnected from your brain's cortex.
The Benefits of EMDR Treatment for Trauma
EMDR is a faster treatment for trauma compared with standard talk therapy.
Clients feel almost immediate benefits without the need to practice strategies or do homework in between therapy sessions.
EMDR changes the way traumatic memories are encoded in your brain, therefore gains made in therapy are more permanent.
The EMDR Association of Australia (EMDRAA) sets the standards for training in Australia. EMDRAA members are professionally qualified mental health practitioners, who are fully trained in EMDR.
I have completed my EMDR training and have membership of EMDRAA. In addition, I undertake advanced EMDR training & supervision on a regular basis, aiming to continually provide a high standard of clinical care to clients.
“The goal of EMDR Therapy is to achieve the most profound and comprehensive treatment effects possible in the shortest period of time, while maintaining client stability within a balanced system.”
— Francine Shapiro