12/11/2025
Since Covid ended, I haven’t written as much about good psychological practices, but consider this my Christmas gift to the universe.🎄
As a trauma therapist, I am foremost concerned with mitigating the symptoms and long-standing impacts of adverse events, which could be a one-time occurrence or something like child abuse or a dysfunctional marriage, which spans years.
I’m not sure our American perspective differs much from the world, at large, regarding trauma. Largely, we just deny it exists, that we likely suffer from its ill effects and that it hinders our ability to function at full capacity, meaning every area of our life is diminished because of it. We ignore, suck it up and suffer.
As a Christian, my faith absolutely informs my practice, regardless of whether I integrate that faith overtly in counseling sessions. That decision strictly lies with clients, for whom I have absolute respect. The specific Bible verse that speaks into my practice is John 10:10, the second sentence. Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life, and have it in abundance.”
Lots of folks out there, and you may be one, are not living in abundance. Or we trick ourselves into believing abundance means having a lot of stuff. Largely because ‘negative cognitions,” beliefs we have about ourselves – also known as trauma triggers – bar us from true abundance, which is more about peace, joy and contentedness.
But there’s an antidote. I’m always surprised how few people actually know about it. It’s called EMDR – Eye Motion Desensitization and Reprocessing – which sounds like a whole lot of nothing. But as an EMDR practitioner I regularly get to witness peoples’ lives being changed before my eyes, typically in one miraculous 90-minute session. It even works on babies and children.
EMDR makes use of what is known as bilateral stimulation, which replicates REM sleep, while fully awake. Sometimes it is activated by eye motion or the use of tappers which are handheld and vibrate back and forth, activating the eye movement. For babies and toddlers, I use a paintbrush, with gentle left and right brushstrokes on the tops of their hands .
Francine Shapiro discovered this powerful therapy in the late 80s, which is now recognized as a leading treatment for severe and often-treatment resistant PTSD, reducing treatment from years to months.
The therapy taps into our central nervous system and subconscious, where memories are stored, but is not invasive. It does require special training, which I completed both as a grad school student and, again, later over a series of days. I use EMDR as a so-called solution-based therapy, which means it so dramatically heals people that they frequently often need little other therapy.
I’ve also done EMDR, to heal my own trauma, which has freed me from limiting self-beliefs, baggage I’d been carrying for too long that did not belong to me.
I’ve attached the two pages of Negative Cognitions. Most, if not all, of you have at least one. Many, have a lot. And it’s not surprising; it’s a unicorn who escapes childhood without at least one – from parents, siblings, teachers, coaches, friends, bullies at school, co-workers, bosses, etc. (This is not bashing anyone, but we aren’t perfect people and sometimes we do and say things that endure, myself included. We do the best we can until we learn to do better.)
I’ve had parents accompany their children for the EMDR session and the transformation of the negative into positive is so powerful and remarkable, they often weep with joy to see their child restored to full psychological health.
It is transformative and the most miraculous treatment I, as a humble human, have the privilege of facilitating.
A small percentage of people may not respond to the treatment or it may be unadvisable. Primarily those people are either highly dissociated from their trauma or have a tendency toward psychosis. Those who are dissociated can respond with additional therapy, but it takes a bit more than just 90 minutes.
I’m a dreamer and I think how much the world could be transformed if everyone had access to EMDR, and psychotherapy, in general. For instance, trauma is believed to be at the core of addiction, obesity, inflammation in the body (think: heart disease, autoimmune disorders, cancer), mental illness, anxiety, depression, etc., etc.
I have been face-to-face with those who suffered childhood sexual abuse, sexual assault, natural disasters and more, who did not get treatment for decades. I sometimes work with people who are living on the street. Every single one of them suffered from trauma long before they ever became “unhoused.” I often think about if they had gotten EMDR immediately, or at least sooner.
Dramatic improvement, if not resolution, in 90 minutes. It’s revolutionary. But largely a secret.
Maybe EMDR could improve your life or that of someone you know? But knowing about it is the first step. Knowledge is power.
