trauma comes in all shapes and sizes.

We now know that trauma can be the result of one-time intense events like a car accident, sexual assault or witnessing a violent event… or the result of subtler, ongoing experiences of bullying, parents not listening, or growing up with people fighting in our home — what we call developmental trauma. These are things, as adults, we might say were “no big deal,” but as children filled us with fear, pain, or stress.

EMDR is an evidence-based therapy for all types of trauma that can help decrease the distressing emotions that result from these experiences. EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing and is an evidence-based approach created by Francine Shapiro to treat PTSD and trauma. I studied under Roy Kiessling, who trained with Francine for two decades.

The technique uses back-and-forth eye movements to help the brain process emotions by mimicking the kind of memory consolidation that occurs during REM sleep — think of how our eyes dart back and forth under our eyelids when we’re sleeping deeply. It’s unlike talk therapy in that the magic of healing occurs behind the scenes, at the speed of our neural processing.

I use a version of EMDR called attachment-focused EMDR, which is a soft, gentle, supportive approach. We can do EMDR as part of our Zoom session by screen-sharing or following my hand on the screen. Studies are showing it works just as well as in person.

I’m happy to talk to you more about EMDR if this is something you’re interested in. You can email me at contact@mariabertrandtherapy.com