EMDR

Pacific Solstice utilizes a person-centered approach to behavioral wellness. In other words, not everyone will need the same treatment plan. And every treatment plan needs to take into account the individual’s history, preferences, goals, needs, strengths, abilities. From group work to family care to individual appointments, our screening and assessment process ensures a tailored approach and you are encouraged to take the pressure off of yourself by removing a timeline. Healing happens in ways unexpected but it rarely happens on a clock when one pressures themselves to change. Part of our approach to integrative psychiatry is lifestyle medicine, drug therapies, family work, micro shifts across your routine and balancing your circadian rhythm to what your unique season in life and body chemistry need.

EMDR Therapy stands for Eye Movement, Desensitization, and Reprocessing, created by Francine Shapiro PhD. EMDR is comprehensive form of psychotherapy with eight phases, different methods, and procedures. Clinicians guide their patients by accessing past experiences that set the groundwork for current problems patients face. Using bilateral eye movements the goal is to process present situations causing disturbance and incorporate new education, skills, and perspectives into memory networks that are necessary for future successes. According to Francine Shapiro, “The person receiving EMDR therapy not only addresses the obvious symptoms of a problem but can also end up with a wide range of positive changes that affect all areas of life.”

EMDR therapy assists in the access of memory networks rooted in the past which affect the way we think in the present. EMDR allows the patient the opportunity to change the way memories impact our view of self which changes the way we view others. According to Dr. Bessel Van der kolk, author of The Body Keeps the Score, “EMDR loosens up something in the mind/brain that gives people rapid access to loosely associated memories and images from their past. This seems to help them put the traumatic experience into a larger context or perspective. People may be able to heal from trauma without talking about it. EMDR enables them to observe their experiences in a new way, without verbal give and take with another person.”

For a person suffering from trauma, building trust is difficult. EMDR can help a person process their trauma even in circumstances where trusting another person is difficult. Because EMDR doesn’t require patients to talk about things that are intolerable or explain to a therapist why they feel so upset, it allows the patient to stay fully focused on their internal experience sometimes with extraordinary results.

Growth occurs when a person is safe. When a person doesn’t experience safety, functional, developmental, cognitive or behavioral impairments or interruptions occur. While everyone experiences trauma, not everyone will experience health and healing. At Pacific Solstice, your timeline is yours. You will need various modalities and everything will need to be modulated and adjusted over time to give you personalized symptom relief. This is a personal journey. We call it sacred. But, before you complete an assessment, decide to be patient with yourself and to make healing a lifelong commitment. You must decide you deserve for your story to be treated as sacred and that you will allow it to unfold. Forcing an outcome or asking someone to fix you are short circuiting the depth of how your human dignity shall be regarded. EMDR will help you integrate your past and present.

While we treat victims of war and crime, not everyone who benefits from EMDR, DBT, CBT or an integration of them all on a daily basis, PHP, needs to have experienced what someone else defines as horror or suffering. The body keeps track of what we have experienced. Wiith time, self-care, being known and cultivating a life of safety and health, the body is extremely resilient and serves your best interests. If this was helpful, take one more step and find out what options are available with your insurance.