EMDR Therapy in Denver: More Healing with Fewer Words
By Jordan Kurtz (she/her), MA, LPCC, Denver EMDR Therapist
One of the most common challenges in therapy is putting our experiences of pain to words. While what saddens us, angers us, or frightens us is familiar internally, it can be daunting and difficult to externalize for many reasons. One, what exactly is it I am feeling? It may be easy to acknowledge, “I am not feeling good”, but more nuanced to identify: body sensations, triggers, emotions, and reactions in response to “not feeling good”. Two, how will others respond to what I am feeling? There may be fear of judgment, criticism, or simply a lack of response that prevents us from exploring our pain even with a professional such as a therapist.
One of the many gifts of EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy) is that it does not require as much verbalization as traditional talk therapy.
In conventional psychotherapy of any modality, therapists inquire at the beginning of the therapeutic process and throughout about the origin of trauma/pain/symptoms and how it makes you feel/think/respond to yourself and others. With an attuned and trauma-informed therapist, contemplation of these questions can be challenging but rewarding as validation and insight reinforce one another. In EMDR, information about these questions are gathered during the History Taking Phase but are less prevalent throughout the Processing and Desensitization Phases. Instead of verbal and emotional processing in conjunction, EMDR utilizes physiological and emotional processing with less concentration on verbalization.
So How Does EMDR Therapy Work?
The basic foundation of EMDR is bilateral stimulation, which encompasses left side to right side body movement through auditory tones, tapping one one’s legs, buzzers, a light bar, or your therapist’s fingers.
Bilateral stimulation of your choosing is paired with focus cues from your therapist, such as focusing on a specific sensation, emotion or image. Holding focus on the directed cue as well as the bilateral stimulation helps facilitate “stuck” processing (i.e. parts of your trauma that make it feel present though it is in the past).
As processing progresses, triggers, emotions and behavioral responses become more neutral (i.e. “desensitized”) and empowered, non-blaming beliefs about self, world, and others are able to emerge (i.e. “It was not my fault”; “The world is not always a dangerous place”; “I am in control”).
Other questions? See our previous post to explore if EMDR therapy is right for you and learn more about its history and empirical support.
Breaking Down the Eight Phases of EMDR with an EMDR Therapist in Denver, CO.
EMDR has seven active stages and a recurring follow up stage known as Re-Evaluation. Steps three through seven- debriefed more below- may be repeated multiple times depending on the number of targets your therapist and you identify.
Phase 1: History Taking
A common part of all therapists’ protocol, the history taking stage allows the therapist to take inventory on an individual’s history, identities, family structure, coping strategies and present symptoms/concerns.
Phase 2: Preparation
The therapist provides information about how EMDR works and checks in with client concerns, questions, and hopes. The therapist introduces and guides the client through several grounding techniques and coping resources to utilize during and after processing sessions.
Phase 3: Assessment
The therapist guides the client through a brief series of questions to help the client identify salient memories or “targets” related to their trauma. The therapist and client collaborate to determine which memory to process first- individual judgement prevails but therapists often suggest beginning with earliest memories related to the trauma. The client provides information about associated negative beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations related to the targets.
Phase 4: Desensitization
Using the bilateral stimulation method of the individual’s choosing, the therapist facilitates re-engagement with the traumatic memory (see image for eye movements and tactile stimulation in action). Pairing bilateral stimulation with processing is called “dual awareness”, and helps protect the individual from re-experiencing the traumatic event by gradually desensitizing the individual to disturbing parts of the memory.
Phase 5: Installation
After the memory is desensitized of disturbing elements (or perceived as neutral as possible), the therapist and individual explore positive beliefs to pair with the target. This process helps the individual re-author their perception of themselves and the event. The positive belief is held with the memory and bilateral stimulation once more to instill and heighten adaptive reframing.
Phase 6: Body Scan
The therapist assists the individual in scanning head to toe to identify any residual discomfort associated with the traumatic memory. If tension or pain is identified, further rounds of bilateral stimulation are applied to fully clear the traumatic memory from the body.
Phase 7: Closure
At the end of the session- whether processing is completed or not- the therapist ensures the individual is in a state of emotional equilibrium by leading them through breath exercises or other self-soothing acts.
Phase 8: Reevaluation
At the beginning of subsequent sessions, the therapist assesses any emotional, physical or behavioral responses the individual may have noticed between processing sessions.
Coming Full Circle
As you can likely see from the steps above, bilateral stimulation occupies much of the processing time and your therapist collaborates with you and stands beside you at each step of the journey.
The most “talk-heavy” stages are typically History Taking and Assessment and even then it is important to note: your emdr therapist should never demand that you recount your trauma in full.
In other words, your EMDR therapist wants to know a broad picture of your story, and individual brushstrokes are not required.
Some practitioners use EMDR with children as young as four with limited verbal capacity and long-term memory. I bring this point up to illustrate that the most important things your therapist will help you elucidate clearly are how the memory makes you feel and think about yourself, and extensive details are not necessary.
EMDR Therapy in Denver, CO: Let’s Get Started
No matter where you’re at on your healing journey, a trained Denver EMDR therapist at CZ Therapy Group would love to support you. Follow these three steps to connect with an EMDR therapist on our team:
Schedule a free 20-minute consult call to see if EMDR therapy in Denver is right for you.
Connect with the CZTG EMDR therapist of your choice via a phone consult.
Begin your trauma healing journey!
Meet The Writer: Jordan Kurtz, EMDR Therapist in Denver, CO
Jordan Kurtz (she/her) is a trauma and relationship therapist at CZTG who focuses on therapy for grief, trauma, adolescence, and couples. Jordan is authentic, warm, and affirming of her clients’ identities and experiences.
Like what you’re reading so far? Explore more of Jordan’s blogs on EMDR therapy, including a recent post on using Denver EMDR therapy to break the self-fulfilling prophecy cycle.