What is EMDR therapy and Modified Protocol, Attachment-Focused EMDR therapy?

What is EMDR?

EMDR is an acronym for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy, which is a powerful and effective method of therapy for treating trauma.

Trauma may be best be defined as “a psychological, emotional response to an event or an experience that is deeply distressing or disturbing” [1].

EMDR therapy incorporates eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation into an in-depth, comprehensive, mind-body approach to processing pieces of distressing experiences that are stuck in the mind and body—in a way that positively transforms the memory, physiological sensations, emotions and beliefs associated with the experience [2].

EMDR has extensively been researched over the past few decades as a treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and is considered to be an evidence-based therapy for trauma [3 & 4].

In addition to treating PTSD, EMDR is also used to treat the mental and emotional effects of a wide variety of smaller traumas that manifest as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, phobias, creativity blocks, and relationship difficulties [2].

What differentiates EMDR therapy from something like medication per se is that EMDR therapy enables us to treat and address the causes of the issues rather than just treating symptoms.

What is Modified Protocol, Attachment-Focused EMDR?

The development of Attachment-Focused EMDR began in 1991. This modified protocol of the therapy was developed by Laurel Parnell by whom I was trained personally.

Dr. Parnell developed AF-EMDR for clients who have typically been less responsive to traditional EMDR protocols, who had experienced things such as childhood physical or sexual abuse, neglect, early losses, birth trauma, medical trauma, parental drug or alcohol abuse, caregiver misattunement, or secondary trauma [2].

AF-EMDR therapy might be a good fit for you if you struggle with anxiety, depression, not feeling fully alive, not enjoying life, difficulty making important decisions and taking action, intense emotional reactions to certain situations or people, difficult relationships in the family with whom you grew up, or issues in your relationships as an adult.

Processing and healing can occur much more rapidly than with talk therapy alone, and clearing these negative effects often results in people experiencing greater joy, peace, meaning, depth, openness, and connection in their lives and relationships.

If any of these sound like things you have experienced or things with which you struggle, please contact me through the contact form on this page to reach me most quickly, or you may also email or call me to request to schedule your 45 minute phone consultation.

In my experiences, Attachment-Focused EMDR is a more client-centered, flexible and intuitive method of EMDR.

I have found that Attachment-Focused EMDR enables and creates healing in ways that simply are not possible with talk therapy alone.

EMDR enables us to effectively work through a wide variety of triggers or things we haven’t been able to let go of, and genuinely move forward in our lives and relationships.

References:

1. http://centerforanxietydisorders.com/what-is-trauma/

2. http://parnellemdr.com/emdr-and-af-emdr/?fbclid=IwAR2ZvmEa7uxLvVm072RTVpA5SMXdOtM3j4dJc8H2ks1a-tghX-RuAgRFtqs

3. http://www.emdr.com/efficacy/

4. https://www.emdrhap.org/content/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/Research_2015.pdf

How to Find a Therapist in Salt Lake City, Utah

In my experience, most people don’t seek out therapy as a first resort when they are faced with a problem in their lives or relationships.

You are, of course, an intelligent and self-sufficient person.

So, you first use the coping skills you know of, such as researching the problem online, talking with friends or family, reading self-help books, exercising or maybe practicing yoga.

And it is only when you have exhausted all of your coping skills and are still struggling, that you reach out to see if counseling or therapy might help!

So, how do you find a therapist in Salt Lake City, Utah?

I highly recommend asking friends and family members for the name and contact information of any therapists with whom they’ve had a great experience.

A referral from someone you trust, who knows you and who can share their experiences is often the very best way to find a therapist who is likely to be a good fit for you as well.

Or you may choose to go online to do a Google search. However, in doing an online search, you may be overwhelmed by the number of different counselors and therapists in our area.

It can be very challenging to determine from the many listed which counselors or therapists specialize in treating the problem you are struggling with, use the treatment method that will be the best fit for your unique problem, and which therapist you will feel most comfortable in working with.

Perhaps most important, you’d like to know what other clients have experienced in working with these potential counselors and therapists in order to make an educated decision in selecting the therapist that is the best fit for you and what you’re looking for.

A great website and resource which provides this information about the counselors and therapists is www.healthgrades.com.

Healthgrades provides specific information about each counselor’s specializations, conditions they treat, treatment approaches they utilize, and it provides anonymous client reviews to give you a better understanding of whether that counselor or therapist might be a good fit for you and your needs.

You can review my Healthgrades profile by clicking on this link below:

UPDATE and Public Service Announcement: Healthgrades.com has unfortunately chosen to contract with the disreputable and unethical tech company, BetterHelp, which is often falsely claiming that the therapists on the Healthgrades.com website are not accepting new patients and re-directing site visitors to contact BetterHelp therapists instead.

I strongly recommend that you don’t use BetterHelp due to their selling clients’ names and diagnoses to third parties, among other things. See this link for more info about the FTC case and this link for more info about the FTC order and $7.8 million fine of BetterHelp.

Instead, of using BetterHelp, I strongly recommend you call or email the therapists you find on Healthgrades.com who sound like they might be a good fit for you, in order to inquire directly about whether or not they are accepting new clients.