EMDR
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy) is a modality that utilizes bilateral stimulation to calm the nervous system while a person processes a disturbing memory, thought, or emotion. Bilateral stimulation, which activates both the left and right sides of the brain, can be tactile (holding a vibrating device in each hand), auditory, or visual in nature. Similar to the way REM sleep helps our brains process learning and life events, EMDR allows a client to more calmly process traumatic events than in talk therapy alone. During EMDR, a client is guided to stop and start in intervals, which allows the person to process difficult moments at a comfortable pace and with therapeutic intervention as needed. This leads to more complete and adaptive processing of trauma.
I work primarily from an EMDR framework, which posits that many of our present difficulties come from unprocessed past events and connected beliefs about self. This framework explores one’s thoughts, emotions, and body sensations in a comprehensive way.
EFT
Emotionally Focused Therapy explores how our desire for connection and secure attachment is at the root of our experiences with others. Corrective emotional experiences can change a person’s way of relating to themselves and to their partner. By recognizing the deep emotional meaning that each individual makes of their various experiences, and particularly within their intimate relationships, couples can learn to understand themselves and each other more fully. Through corrective emotional experiences in the therapy room, clients can begin to feel differently in their relationships - sometimes in ways they never thought possible!
Couples often battle with content (who’s right? who’s wrong?) when the emotions underlying the specific content are what fuels the tension. By exploring relational cycles and experimenting with new behaviors, couples can experience new levels of connection and ease. EFT encourages safe communication, even when discussing tense subject matters, and therapist involvement helps make this possible.
Polyvagal-Informed Therapy
Polyvagal-informed therapy utilizes an understanding and appreciation of the body’s nervous system.
A regulated and adaptive nervous system allows for learning, resilience, and overall emotional stability. By exploring how our autonomic system operates, including the pathways of our vagus nerve, we can learn how to tend to our nervous system, recognize how we are influenced, and gain trust in our own signals and ability to cope. Through understanding our individual physiological reactions, including what gets us into a defensive fight, flight, or freeze state, we are able to make changes that allow for greater comfort and flow in our lives.
Polyvagal-informed therapy is a hopeful modality, because our nervous systems are malleable to change. As new neural pathways are formed and strengthened through a process called neuroplasticity, it becomes easier to feel less anxious and less shut down. Defensive strategies are not as problematic or long-lasting when we know how to move in and out of our various states, and when we can appreciate what these moments of defensiveness might be telling us. Polyvagal-informed therapy can be very helpful for clients who question themselves and have trouble knowing what their “gut instincts” are. Self-trust increases when we begin to tune in to the physiological signals that often go unrecognized.