EMDR Therapy
Are You Ready to Free Yourself From Past Wounds and Outdated Beliefs or Ways of Being?
Would you like to decrease symptoms of anxiety or depression and feel clearer, more confident, and in control?
Would you like more clarity and confidence to move toward a life you love?
These are some of the many benefits of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, or EMDR, therapy—whether you’re doing therapy online, in-person, or outdoors. At the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, we take a somatic, relational, and holistic approach to EMDR that considers your innate wisdom and goes at a pace that cares for your unique nervous system.
What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR therapy is a highly researched method of psychotherapy that has helped millions of people around the globe recover from trauma. EMDR therapy uses bilateral (both sides of the body) stimulation—such as tapping your body or moving your eyes from left to right—to activate a natural healing process within the brain.
Developed in 1987 by Francine Shapiro, EMDR therapy has helped people heal from a wide variety of traumatic life experiences, such as physical, sexual and emotional abuse, loss, accidents, surgeries, addictions, natural disasters and stressful day-to-day encounters.
EMDR therapy also supports healing from pervasive ways of thinking and feeling that have their roots in complex trauma. This highly effective modality has helped people gain more ease, security, and confidence and peace in themselves, their relationships, and life in general.
How Does EMDR Therapy Work?
The brain and body have a natural ability to heal from trauma. EMDR is an accessible form of therapy that taps into this innate ability. Instead of simply talking about your trauma, EMDR uses a series of bilateral stimulation exercises to activate the brain and body’s natural healing process.
This bilateral experience helps you strengthen your internal confidence and compassion, while reducing the distress you feel when you remember past traumatic events. You don’t forget what happened to you—rather, EMDR allows you to change and let go of the inaccurate beliefs you’ve taken on about yourself or the world as a result of your trauma. EMDR changes your response to what happened. With EMDR, your relationship with yourself, your beliefs, and your world can shift. You can feel less trapped in the past and more present in your current life.
Unlike most approaches to trauma therapy, EMDR addresses so much more than just symptoms. It goes deep under the surface of conscious awareness and accesses the parts of the brain where symbols and core beliefs are stored. This allows you to feel the feelings you were not able to previously process, naturally resulting in a shift in your understanding and the narrative you tell yourself about your trauma. You can arrive at a clearer, more empowered sense of your strengths, capacities, and inherent worthiness.
How Effective is EMDR Therapy and Who Can it Help?
EMDR has helped numerous trauma survivors heal from sexual abuse, domestic violence, car accidents, natural disasters, grief and loss, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), addiction, and many other disturbing life experiences. Over time, there have been thousands of peer-reviewed research studies done on the effectiveness of EMDR. The American Psychological Association, World Health Organization, and Department of Defense all recommend EMDR for trauma treatment. *
Since traumatic life experiences lie at the root of so many emotional struggles, EMDR has been effective in helping people healing from a wide range of both emotional and physical challenges.
What Does EMDR Therapy Look Like?
First, you’ll have a conversation with your therapist to pinpoint your healing goals for EMDR. Next, you’ll identify the inner and outer resources you can turn to and connect with throughout treatment. These resources can include humans, animals, your own inner wise parts, spiritual support, or connection with the Earth. We guide you to identify what is truly resourcing for you. As you process the pain of the past, you’ll connect with these inner and outer resources to stay connected to the present moment and feel supported.
When you’re ready, you’ll begin consciously recalling your stressful experience while simultaneously adding bilateral sensory stimulation techniques involving sight, sound, or sensory vibration. This not only supports the processing of past stressful experiences, but also activates and opens new healing pathways in the brain.
Other Approaches That We Incorporate Into EMDR Therapy
At the Somatic Nature Therapy Institute, we use EMDR to treat trauma, anxiety, depression, addiction, grief and loss, challenges with life transitions, and many other issues.
Our approach to EMDR is somatic, holistic and evokes the inner wisdom of the clients’ body-mind connection. We often integrate other modalities based on your interests and healing goals. These modalities may include Internal Family Systems-informed parts work and our nature-based approach to therapy. As our practice name implies, we take a comprehensive approach to treatment and welcome nature connection as a resource. This means our therapists can conduct EMDR sessions outdoors, allowing clients to stay rooted to the Earth and connected to the natural rhythms of the world around them.
Additionally, our practice weaves EMDR with mindfulness, expressive arts therapy, and ceremony and ritual creation. Since everyone is unique, our goal is to customize therapy to suit the needs of each client.
We’ve been able to help hundreds of people heal their emotional wounds and experience greater ease and inner peace. We hope that we can do the same for you.
Our Background With EMDR Therapy
The Somatic Nature Therapy Institute Founder Katie Asmus has been using EMDR with clients who come from a wide range of backgrounds, identities, cultures, and life experiences since 2004. She’s seen powerful results since the beginning of her training and practice. EMDR has enabled her clients to resolve challenges and issues that they had been wrestling with for years.
Inspired by her success with the approach, Katie has been offering EMDR consultation and advanced training for over 18 years to therapists who want to increase their EMDR therapy skills. She has co-created and taught these advanced EMDR courses at the Maiberger Institute. She has trained and provides consultation to many of our current staff in EMDR and it has become one of the central modalities in our approach to counseling.
What People are Saying About EMDR Therapy
Are You Ready to Reclaim Your Inherent Worthiness And Experience a Greater Sense of Personal Power?
You don’t have to live in the shadow of your trauma. EMDR can empower you to increase your confidence and self-trust, experience deeper satisfaction in your relationships, and feel a greater sense of control in your life.
To experience the healing power of EMDR therapy for yourself, contact us to schedule a free 20-minute phone consultation. We look forward to taking this journey with you!