My Top #3 Truths about EMDR Therapy in Tampa

Tampa can be a great place to visit, live and be. We have our fair share of excitement and beauty with beautiful attractions, the ocean, springs, and amusement parks. Behind that, though, is still a city full of people trying to do life and work from day-to-day. Especially with the last two years of COVID stress alone, day-to-day life has been challenging and understandably so. 

Here are my top #3 Truths about EMDR Therapy in Tampa and why it’s relevant to both the beauty and the pain many of us have been experiencing. 

EMDR Therapy can Give us Hope in Our Strengths

Part of the EMDR therapy process is something called “resourcing.” A super fancy term and it makes sense. We all know that when we don’t have the resources, we need it makes life beyond difficult. A clinician trained in EMDR therapy can use this to process your strengths and qualities that give you hope and make you feel good about yourself! There are many great techniques to do this in session, but most of them either use guided imagery or eye movements to help cement those in place. 

EMDR Therapy can Help Us Let Go of What Was Never Ours 

Do you remember those little sticky hands you could get out of a vending machine? You know, the ones that came in vibrant colors, there was a hand on one side, and attached to the hand was a long rope of sticky material. You could swing it around, throw it at walls, and it would stick. But after a bit of time, dirt, debris, and other fun treasures got attached to it, and it just didn’t stick as well to the wall. We’re kind of like that. We go through life, and messages often get stuck to us until we keep believing the same messages we’ve been told and then have found to reaffirm that original message. EMDR therapy can help in processing that old muck. We don’t have to keep the old messages that were never ours, to begin with. Typically they came from our parents, who got them from your grandparents, who got them from your great grandparents, and so on. We’re just doing the best we can, but we’re carrying around messages that weren’t ours, to begin with, and EMDR can help the brain process them and find the authentic ones for us. 

EMDR Doesn’t Change Things Overnight, But It Starts a Change

One of my favorite things about EMDR therapy is that even after a session is over, the brain continues processing all on its own. Pro-tip: a night of nice deep REM sleep can be extra helpful to assist the brain in continuing to process. So no, in most cases, EMDR does not “fix” a problem overnight. Most people and traumas are more complex than that, although some people have seen marked improvement after one session of EMDR therapy. All in all, EMDR therapy does help to start that shift, which can be such a beautiful thing.  

I hope you have found this to help in finding an anxiety therapist or an EMDR therapist in Tampa for you. If you aren’t sure where to start but know you are ready for a change, give me a call, and we can chat for a free 15-minute phone consultation. I’d be happy to hear about what’s been going on in life and direct you to the right person if I’m not that person.