EMDR
Negative events or traumas from the past can lessen one's self confidence and sense of self-efficacy. These experiences sometimes lead to fears and erroneous self beliefs which create stress, physical disturbance and low self esteem, can block progress to a goal, and can actually inhibit or prevent forward movement to living one's full potential.
Often it is intense anxiety and irrational beliefs that get triggered in the present due to some past event that has not released from the nervous system. For example, a high functioning executive may be thwarted in his ability to participate in high level meetings at a corporate headquarters in a far away city because he is terrified to fly. A person may be high functioning in every aspect of her life yet be paralyzed when a particular trigger is encountered.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a powerful and effective method for releasing emotional material that has been trapped in the nervous system and is being triggered in the present environment. This is a process that activates the memory system associated with the trigger and assists in quickly desensitizing and resolving the disturbing feelings, promoting and allowing a more adaptive resolution to unfold. The client is able to come forth with a very positive cognition rather than the self-limiting, erroneous one and experience a totally new and adaptive orientation to the image as well as a new way of understanding and viewing themselves.
The process consists of saccadic eye movements or other repeated bilateral stimulation (such as alternating sounds from a headset) accompanied by the uncomfortable feelings, thoughts and/or image of the target. Theories about how and why EMDR works are based primarily on observed effects. To learn more about EMDR, please visit their website.
Laurell Parnell, Ph.D., San Rafael, Ca. is a long time user and proponent of EMDR and also does facilitation and training for the EMDR Institute. She says,
"EMDR has expanded my view of what is possible. I now believe that our essential nature includes clarity, wisdom, and compassion, and that social conditioning obscures knowing this essential nature. Consequently, we may not express it. As we age, we tend to define ourselves by beliefs and concepts and take these to be our truth. If our essential nature is like the sun, it is as if the sky becomes cloudy, causing the sun to disappear. In truth, the sun is never gone - it is simply hidden. EMDR processing can help to clear the clouds and reveal the sun."
Beverly is Level II trained in EMDR and over the past 10 years has done post-training consultations and taken many advanced courses and training with the EMDR Institute's top facilitators.
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