Understanding EMDR

Healing in Motion: Understanding EMDR Therapy
In the world of trauma therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) has become a powerful and well-researched tool for healing. It’s not a trend or a quick fix—it’s a deeply effective, evidence-based approach that helps people process and move through trauma that’s been stuck for far too long.
If you've ever felt like your body or brain is “stuck” in a past experience—where the emotions, beliefs, or sensations feel just as intense today as they did back then—EMDR might be worth exploring.

What Is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s a structured therapy that helps people heal from trauma and distressing life experiences by working directly with the nervous system and the brain’s natural capacity to process information.
Unlike talk therapy, EMDR doesn’t require you to give a play-by-play of what happened. It focuses on how the trauma lives in your nervous system now—what you believe about yourself, how your body responds, and the ways your past experiences are still impacting your present.

How Does It Work?
MDR uses something called bilateral stimulation—eye movements,  tapping or auditory tones. While focusing on a distressing memory, these movements help the brain reprocess that experience. Essentially, EMDR allows the brain to “unstick” and refile the memory in a way that’s no longer triggering or emotionally overwhelming.
It’s not hypnosis. You’re awake, in control, and aware. But your brain is doing deep work behind the scenes—accessing memory networks, letting go of old survival responses, and making new meaning.
At Restorative Connections, Brittany uses vibrating "tappers"—small handheld devices that alternate vibrations between each hand—for most in-person EMDR sessions. This method of bilateral stimulation is gentle and grounding, helping clients stay present and regulated during processing. For telehealth sessions, Brittany uses self-tapping techniques, guiding clients to tap alternately on their own shoulders or knees, so they can experience EMDR safely and effectively from the comfort of home.

What Can EMDR Help With?
EMDR was originally developed for PTSD, but it's now used to treat a wide range of issues, including:

• Childhood trauma and neglect
• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Depression
• Grief and loss
• Chronic pain
• Attachment wounds
• Phobias
• Medical trauma
• Performance anxiety

What these all have in common is some kind of “stuck” experience in the body and brain—something that didn’t get fully processed when it happened, often because it was too overwhelming at the time.

What Does a Session Look Like?
EMDR is an eight-phase model, which includes:

1. History-taking and treatment planning
2. Preparation and building resources for safety
3. Identifying target memories
4. Desensitization (using bilateral stimulation)
5. Installing positive beliefs
6. Body scan (to track how your body responds)
7. Closure
8. Reevaluation in future sessions

The process is gentle but deep. You don’t have to tell your whole story out loud. And you’re never pushed faster than your system is ready for. A trauma-informed EMDR therapist will move at your pace and prioritize safety above all else.
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Why It Matters
Trauma doesn’t always show up as flashbacks or nightmares. Sometimes it looks like chronic anxiety, people-pleasing, numbness, self-doubt, or always being on high alert. EMDR helps access the root of these patterns and create real, lasting change—not just insight, but relief.
Healing from trauma isn’t about erasing the past. It’s about reclaiming your present and your sense of safety. EMDR gives people the tools to do that in a way that feels organic, empowering, and grounded.

Final Thoughts
If you’ve tried other forms of therapy and still feel like something’s missing, EMDR might offer the shift you need. It doesn’t erase hard experiences—but it can help you relate to them differently, with more peace, strength, and clarity.
You don’t have to stay stuck. Healing is possible. And EMDR can be one powerful step on that path.

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