Your Past Shapes Your Present: How EMDR Can Help You Heal and Move Forward

What is EMDR Therapy and How Can It Help Heal Trauma, Anxiety, and Attachment Wounds?

For women, mothers, and female therapists in Missouri and Utah, the weight of past trauma, anxiety, and attachment wounds can feel overwhelming. These challenges can leave you stuck in patterns of fear, dissociation from your body, and emotional pain that seem impossible to break. However, there is hope for healing deeply rooted wounds through a powerful therapeutic approach called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).

In this blog post, we'll explore what EMDR therapy is, how it works, and how it can transform the way you experience life by targeting the roots of your pain.

Understanding EMDR Therapy

EMDR therapy is a clinically proven, evidence-based approach designed to help people process and heal from traumatic memories and adverse life experiences. Developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, EMDR has been extensively researched and endorsed by organizations like the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Psychological Association (APA).

Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR focuses on the mind’s natural ability to heal by targeting specific memories or experiences that contribute to emotional pain, maladaptive behaviors, and trauma responses. By reprocessing these memories, EMDR allows individuals to break free from the emotional grip of the past and build healthier, more secure connections with themselves and others.

What Happens to Your Brain After EMDR?

Have you ever wondered what happens in your brain during EMDR therapy? EMDR primarily targets the brain's limbic system, which includes areas like the amygdala, hippocampus, and thalamus—key players in processing emotions, memories, and stress responses. It also engages the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s center for rational thinking, decision-making, and social behavior.

When trauma occurs, the brain can store memories in a fragmented and distressing way, making them feel like they are happening in the present rather than the past. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, to help the brain reprocess these memories. This reprocessing integrates the memories into a more cohesive and less emotionally charged form, reducing symptoms like anxiety, flashbacks, and hypervigilance.

After an EMDR session, the brain begins to recognize the traumatic memory as a past event, not a current threat. This shift fosters emotional regulation, helping you respond to past experiences with less intensity. Over time, EMDR can create profound changes, allowing you to experience a greater sense of calm and control.

How Does EMDR Work?

EMDR therapy operates on the idea that unprocessed memories from traumatic or distressing events are stored improperly in the brain. These unprocessed memories can trigger heightened emotional responses, physical sensations, and negative self-beliefs when activated.

Neuroscience shows that traumatic memories are often stuck in the amygdala and other parts of the limbic system, where they activate survival responses. Unlike regular memories, which are stored and organized in the hippocampus, traumatic memories remain fragmented and emotionally charged. This is why they feel so vivid, as if the event is happening again. The brain perceives these memories as ongoing threats, even when the danger has passed.

EMDR helps reprocess these memories through eight structured phases:

1. History Taking: Your therapist gathers information about your past experiences, challenges, and therapy goals.

2. Preparation: You learn grounding techniques and coping strategies to feel supported throughout the process.

3. Assessment: The therapist identifies specific target memories and their associated emotions, beliefs, and physical sensations.

4. Desensitization: Using bilateral stimulation, you process distressing memories in a safe and guided environment.

5. Installation: Positive beliefs and empowering emotions replace negative self-perceptions tied to the memory.

6. Body Scan: You notice and release any lingering physical sensations linked to the memory.

7. Closure: Sessions conclude with grounding techniques to ensure you leave feeling calm and balanced.

8. Reevaluation: Follow-up sessions address progress and any residual concerns.

The ultimate goal is to shift these memories into the hippocampus, where they are understood as past events. This reduces their emotional intensity and helps you respond to them with greater clarity and resilience.

Does EMDR Calm the Amygdala?

Absolutely. EMDR has a profound calming effect on the amygdala, the brain's emotional alarm system. During trauma, the amygdala becomes hyperactive, constantly signaling danger and keeping you in a state of heightened anxiety. While this response is protective in the short term, it can become debilitating when the trauma is unresolved.

Through bilateral stimulation, EMDR helps to reduce the amygdala’s hyperactivity. From the polyvagal theory perspective, EMDR helps to activate the parasympathetic nervous system just enough so you don't get emotionally "flooded" and go into a fight/flight/freeze/fawn response. Without parasympathetic activation your sympathetic nervous system would get overactive and signal danger to your amygdala. The bilateral stimulation allows your brain and body to have "one foot in the past and one in the present", which helps to reprocess the emotional responses while keeping the prefrontal cortex activated so you can reintegrate for adaptive and truer statements about the events and yourself. As memories are reprocessed and integrated, the amygdala learns that these past events no longer pose a threat. This shift decreases fear-based reactions and reduces symptoms like panic attacks and hypervigilance. At the same time, it enhances the functioning of the prefrontal cortex, allowing you to think more clearly and make decisions from a grounded, rational place.

By creating a balance between the emotional and rational parts of the brain, EMDR supports overall mental health and well-being. These changes not only provide immediate relief but also pave the way for long-term healing.

Healing Trauma and Attachment Wounds with EMDR

Targeting Trauma Memories

Traumatic memories often feel as though they are "stuck" in the mind and body, replaying on a loop and triggering painful emotions and physical responses. EMDR helps you reprocess these memories, reducing their emotional intensity and allowing you to view them from a more empowered perspective. This can lead to profound shifts in how you respond to triggers and cope with stress.

Addressing Attachment Wounds

Attachment wounds, often formed in childhood, can create patterns of insecurity, fear, and difficulty trusting others. These wounds may manifest as avoidant, anxious, or disorganized attachment styles in adulthood. EMDR allows you to revisit and heal the emotional pain tied to these early experiences, fostering a sense of safety and connection in your relationships.

Alleviating Trauma Responses in the Body

Trauma is not just a mental experience; it lives in the body as well. Many women experience dissociation, hypervigilance, or other physical symptoms as part of their trauma responses. Through EMDR, you can release these stored sensations and develop a healthier, more attuned relationship with your body.

Why EMDR is Effective for Women, Mothers, and Female Therapists

For women balancing the demands of motherhood, professional responsibilities, and personal healing, EMDR offers a targeted and efficient approach to addressing the underlying causes of emotional pain. Many female therapists also find EMDR invaluable in their personal and professional growth, as it allows them to process their own challenges while offering compassionate care to others.

If you’ve been struggling with unresolved trauma, anxiety, or attachment wounds, EMDR can provide:

• Relief from intrusive thoughts and emotional overwhelm.

• Greater emotional resilience and self-compassion.

• Deeper connection with your body and intuition.

• The ability to break free from generational cycles of trauma and fear.

Come get the RELIEF you deserve!

Start Your Healing Journey

You don’t have to live under the shadow of your past. You don't have to live in constant protective mode, putting your desires, life, and self on hold and making you and your life feel small. EMDR therapy offers a path to healing that honors your unique experiences and empowers you to create a brighter more expansive future. Whether you’re in Missouri or Utah, seeking support as a woman, mother, or therapist, I can help you reconnect with your authentic self and build the life you deserve. I combine EMDR, somatic therapies, and trauma conscious yoga to connect you to your truest self and life an expansive life being the woman, mother, and therapist/healer you dream of. 

Are you ready to take the first step? Visit my website today to learn more about EMDR therapy for mothers and female therapists/healers and how it can support your healing journey. I serve clients in virtually both Missouri and Utah.

By addressing pain at its roots, EMDR transforms lives. Let’s work together to help you find freedom, joy, and wholeness.