Counseling & Coaching Services

Nicole is an EMDR Trained Therapist. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma therapy developed by psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro. EMDR involves recalling a stressful past event and reprogramming the memory in the light of a positive, self-chosen belief while using rapid eye movements to facilitate the process. Many people have found EMDR to be extremely beneficial.

One of the key elements of EMDR is dual stimulation. During treatment, you are asked to think or talk about memories, triggers, and painful emotions while simultaneously focusing on your therapists moving finger or another form of bilateral stimuli. In a typical EMDR therapy session, you focus on traumatic memories and associated negative emotions and beliefs while tracking your therapists moving finger with your eyes as it moves back and forth across your field of vision. Other forms of external stimuli that may be used in EMDR therapy include bilateral tactile sensations and sounds (e.g. alternating hand taps or a chime that pans back and forth from ear to ear).

At the time of a traumatic event, strong emotions interfere with our ability to completely process the experience and one moment becomes frozen in time. Recalling the traumatic event may feel as though the person is reliving the event all over again because the images, smells, sounds, and feelings are still there and can be triggered in the present. When activated, these memories cause a negative impact on our daily functioning and interfere with the way we see ourselves and our world, and how we relate to others.

EMDR therapy appears to directly affect the brain, unfreezing the traumatic memories, allowing you to resolve them. Over time the disturbing memory and associated beliefs, feelings, sensations become digested or worked through until you are able to think about the event without reliving it. The memory is still there, but it is less upsetting.