True North Therapy

EMDR therapy helps you deal with traumatic memories. You will focus on a memory or sensation while doing something that involves both sides of the body, like moving your eyes or tapping. This method makes the memories feel less vivid and less emotional. EMDR therapy is a well-researched and proven way to help people recover from trauma and PTSD.

EMDR does not require talking in detail about the distressing issue or
completing homework between sessions. EMDR therapy allows the brain to resume its natural healing process.

EMDR is designed to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain. For
many clients, EMDR therapy can be completed in fewer sessions than other
psychotherapies.

Our brains have a natural way to recover from traumatic memories and events. This process is about how different parts of the brain work together. One part, called the amygdala, acts like an alarm when something scary or stressful happens. Another part, the hippocampus, helps us learn and remember what’s safe and what’s not. The third part, the prefrontal cortex, helps us think things through and stay in control of our actions and feelings. Some traumatic experiences can be managed and resolved spontaneously, others may require help to be fully processed.

Stress responses are part of our natural fight, flight, or freeze instincts. When distress from a disturbing event remains, the upsetting images, thoughts, and emotions may create an overwhelming feeling of being back in that moment, or of being “frozen in time.” EMDR therapy helps the brain process these memories, and allows normal healing to resume. The experience is still remembered, but the fight, flight, or freeze response from the original event is resolved.

Steps of EMDR for Teens

Phase 1: History and Treatment Planning

We will talk about trauma, what it is and how it shows up for you in your life. We will make a list of your traumatic experiences (without going into the details) and discuss how disturbing each of these events are to you.

Phase 2: Preparation for EMDR Therapy

I will teach you more about EMDR, including techniques that can help you ground and calm your body. We will create a “safe place” to use as a resource, as well as a container where you can put distressing images, sensations, and feelings when you are not in therapy.

A common metaphor used in EMDR therapy is a train ride in which you are able to maintain dual attention – one foot in the present, and one foot in the past. When we move into reprocessing trauma, I want you to feel safe and present inside the train car with me next to you, watching the images from the past move along outside the window. When you feel like there is no window and you are in the past, you are most likely outside the window of tolerance and we will use the coping skills we practiced to help you move safely back to the present.

Phase 3: Assessment

To get started with the re-processing phase, we will learn more about the specific trauma you’d like to work on:

• The worst part about that memory: an image, a sound, a feeling
• The body sensations associated with the memory
• The emotions associated with the memory
• The Negative Cognition (NC) about yourself connected with this memory (ex: I’m in danger)
• The Subjective Units of Disturbance (SUD) – the level of disturbance on a scale of 0-10
• The Positive Cognition (PC) that you would rather believe about yourself when you think about this memory (ex: It’s over. I’m safe now)
• The Validity of Cognition (VOC) – how much do you believe the PC on a scale of 1-7, 1 meaning it doesn’t feel true at all, and 7 meaning it feels completely true.

Phase 4: Desensitization

During this phase, I will ask you to focus on your target memory while adding bilateral stimulation (BLS).

Bilateral stimulation can be eye movements following the use of a light bar, listening to bilateral tones, or use of the tappers, which buzz alternately. All of these forms of BLS work to desensitize memory. Bilateral stimulation is usually done for about 30 seconds. During this time, I will ask you to just notice what comes up for you. Sometimes it will be a sensation, parts of the memory, an emotion, or nothing at all. 

After each set of BLS, I will ask what you are noticing. After you briefly share, I will ask you to “go with that” and we will resume BLS. We will continue until the memory is no longer disturbing or has a SUDs of 0 out of 10. One of the many benefits of EMDR therapy is that the desensitization process may happen with other traumatic memories that you have experienced because the negative cognition you had of yourself was the same in those experiences, which means, we may not have to address each traumatic experience.

Phase 5: Installation

The goal is to concentrate on and increase the strength of the positive belief you have identified. We will do this again using BLS and will keep at it until this belief is as strong as it can possibly be.

Phase 6: Body Scan

Once your target memory is no longer upsetting to you and you wholeheartedly believe that positive cognition, we will check back in on that memory and see if you feel any negative sensations in your body. If the answer is “yes”, we will go back and reprocess these sensations until they no longer exist.

Phase 7: Closure

I will ask you to think about a future circumstance where you would like to feel or believe this positive cognition and we will explore this situation. We will also talk about what to expect between our sessions (some processing may continue or new stuff may arise) and how to manage your thoughts and emotions if this does happen.

Phase 8: Reevaluation

At our next session, we will check in and see how the week went for you and answer any questions you might have.