Hello good folks. So I did this amazing training last weekend in something called EMDR. It’s a clunky name, and they’d change it if it weren’t already this big international thing that’s been around for thirty years. But that’s what it is. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. But whatever, it’s just a name. Anyway, this is some seriously Jedi stuff…
I did a presentation on EMDR in graduate school back around 2010, which I just remembered not long ago. So I always knew I’d get trained in it; it was just a matter of time. And then it happened synchronistically, of course. A dear friend and fellow healer/counselor was living temporarily in south Florida. She went to the same training down there and was blown away not only by the modality but also by the trainer. This woman was amazing! And super intuitive and really like a laser. And fun, too – super fun. So I knew it was time. I contacted the trainer, and I signed up for her next training down in south Florida. This would’ve been back in April, even though there was going to be one here in Pensacola with a different trainer. I wanted this one, though. And then she emailed me later saying she’d be up in Panama City, FL doing the same thing. So if I could wait a month, I could drive six hours less. Sign me up. That was last weekend, and it was amazing.
I won’t get into too many details about what EMDR is here, because if I use it then I’m sure I’ll be writing many future blog posts about it. And I’m super new and still learning. But the gist is that when we have something troubling us, it’s usually connected to a past memory that’s stuck in the brain, along with all the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations that went with it. So this is all about getting out of the way and sort of floating back through the “memory network” of associated memories, back to the first one that started this particular thread, you might say. Then that one gets “desensitized” (pretty much feeling the feelings, or energies, as we’ve been doing here for years now). And then insights can pop in, which is what we’re all about here as well. So the weekend was also very validating to me, because I’ve known that what I’m doing works better than most talk therapy because of the body component, releasing those stuck energies. EMDR really takes it to another level, though, while clarifying some things at the same time. Good stuff.
I’ve already had several clients this week since the training that seem like a perfect fit for EMDR. And they say yes! Do it. And they’re fine if I’m clunky and even if I’m reading from a script. Because here’s the cool thing, this is all about the therapist getting out of the way. You help them open up, and then let the mind go. Let it go where it wants to, making whatever associations it wants. Let feelings flow. Let insight and understanding naturally happen. Just go with it, and it all happens exactly as it needs to. It already started a few days ago, in fact, with a client that made a connection between a traumatic event and something traumatic that happened when she was a kid, fifty years ago. Fifty years ago. And we weren’t even doing EMDR – I was just telling her about it! Then this old memory and the obvious connection just popped in her head and totally blew her away. So we’ll do some EMDR to clean out both memories when I see her next. So cool. She really was blow away how this old memory just floated up, as in, “How did I not see this connection before??” When we open, the mind just does what it needs to do. And it naturally floats back to the cause.
Before we go, let me tell you about one super cool thing the trainer told us about. She had a client come in for one reason or another; I don’t even know exactly what the presenting issue was. So she opens up and goes into it and lets the mind do its thing, and memories start to float up. And the therapist checks in every so often. So she checked in once, and the client said something like, “I know this sounds crazy, but I feel like I’m in the womb.” And the trainer said, “Go with it.” Then the woman said she felt like she was choking, as if something were wrapped around her neck. “Go with it.” They went through the protocol, “desensitizing” the memory so that all the pain was released. Again, I think it’s basically the “feeling your feelings, but as present energy without the story” that I’ve been doing (chapter 11 of The Untethered Soul).
So the client left feeling good. Oh and by the way, she left cured of asthma as well. Not bad for an hour’s work! And here’s where it gets cooler – the client called her mom after the session to ask if there had been any birth complications. And her mom said, “You know what, there were – the umbilical cord was wrapped around your neck.” Again, and please pardon my excitement, but BAM! Isn’t this freaking cool?? And I’m about to start doing it!
There’s another story that’s even cooler, but I’ll have to check with the trainer to see if she’ll let me tell it in full. It gets into one of her clients clearly being someone well known from a hundred years ago. When her mind “floated back,” she even said a particular name along with specific cities and years that check out when you google. And the name of the person isn’t famous, but when you google it you see that actually it’s connected to someone that is very famous, or actually infamous. I’d never heard of this person before, but it’s all right there on the internet. And the trainer said this woman was sort of uneducated and would never have known the person whose name she said. And again, the cities and dates checked out, too! And she says “uneducated” not in a judgy way at all, but rather in a “not very cosmopolitan” way that she could not have known who the person was that she said she was. Okay, I hope that’s not too confusing. Suffice it to say, though, that this is just super cool stuff, and direct like a laser. And very little talking, too, which is good. Let’s get on with it and let the healing happen, faster and faster. This is some high “bang for the buck” stuff, as the trainer said, and I look forward to playing with it in the weeks and months to come.