Trauma Treatment: EMDR

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Lucille

There is an exciting type of treatment that is especially useful for helping people process trauma experiences. EMDR works by using bi-lateral tones, tapping, or eye movement while thinking about the trauma. It looks very simple – and it is very different from traditional talk therapy. There are many theories, but no one is quite sure how it works. Here is what it looks like during a session – click here

“Trauma may be defined as experience unable to be processed and integrated.”

-Leading PTSD expert Bessel van der Kolk

The same upsetting event may be experienced differently by people and may be stored in people’s brains in a unique manner. Anything can be traumatizing — even minor events such as being teased on the playground — depending on how the event is experience and internalized.

No one knows how any form of psychotherapy works neurobiologically – or in the brain. However, we do know that when a person is very upset, the brain cannot process information as it does ordinarily. One moment becomes “frozen in time,” and remembering a trauma may feel as bad as going through it the first time because the images, sounds, smells, and feelings haven’t changed. Such memories have a lasting negative effect that interferes with the way a person sees the world and the way he relates to other people.

EMDR seems to have a direct effect on the way that the brain processes information. Following a successful EMDR session, a person no longer re-lives the images, sounds, and feelings when the event is brought to mind; He still remembers what happened, but it is less upsetting. EMDR appears to be similar to what occurs naturally during dreaming or REM (rapid eye movement) sleep.

I first heard about this treatment a dozen years ago and actually had a counselor use it with me after a German shepherd attacked me. Even after I experienced EMDR, I was still skeptical because it was such a novel type of therapy. I spent several years in my graduate program reading the trauma literature. I am fascinated with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (think combat vets, domestic violence, and childhood abuse victims who all share the similar cluster of symptoms of Hypervigilance, Arousal, and Re-experiencing).

I am now convinced that EMDR is a very helpful tool for many individuals. It has been approved by the APA (American Psychiatric Association) and has been researched for its efficacy in many clinical studies. It has been used successfully on millions of people from all parts of the world, and our United States military has recently spent money training their mental health clinicians to do this type of therapy.

*I have gone through a very intensive and stringent six full days of training in EMDR and I am Level II certified. I am excited to offer this as a potential tool to help you overcome some of the painful negative emotion that may be associated with your trauma.

**This post originally posted 12/09/07

Into the Free – a book review

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Lucille

I received an advanced reader copy of Julie Cantrell’s first novel: Into the Free.

Here is the storyline: Millie Reynolds knows firsthand the shame of family secrets. With an abusive father and a “nothing mama,” she craves a place of true belonging. Over time, the gypsies that travel through town each spring offer acceptance. Then tragedy strikes and Millie leaves her world of poverty to join a prominent family on the other side of town. There, with the help of unlikely sources, Millie uncovers painful truths about her family’s past as she struggles to face a God she believes has abandoned her. When unconditional love is offered, Millie learns the power of forgiveness and finally discovers where she belongs.

Here is what I wrote on Barnes and Noble and Goodreads:

I settled in to do what I promised…read and review. By the first few pages I completely forgot where I was. Each page had so much tension…it just pulled me forward. Rarely do I even finish most fiction books, much less roar through them.

I cannot believe this is Julie’s first novel. She writes likes a seasoned pro. I am sure this will be the first of many more books by Julie Cantrell. Her name is sure to become popular on reader’s tongues.

Here is where you can order: click here

Mirror Neurons: The key to empathy and attunement

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Lucille

Mirror Neurons

One of the greatest neuro-discoveries of the last decade came when scientists accidently discovered mirror neurons. You probably remember from 7^th grade biology that a neuron is a brain cell. Brain cells transmit electrical and chemical signals, and connect to others to form networks (Scientists estimate there are one hundred billion neurons in the human brain). For hundreds of years, scientists thought the brain was rigid and permanent. They also assumed the brain could never grow new cells. Only in the last decade have scientists discovered the brain is pliable, plastic, moldable, and that the brain can grow.

A team of Italian researchers placed electrodes in the front of a monkey’s brain in order to study the neurons involved as the monkey cracked a peanut and put it in his mouth. During a break, one of the scientists cracked a peanut for himself, and the monkey’s brain made the same audible sound; the exact neurons fired when the monkey watched the action as when the monkey did it himself. Thus, the neurons “mirror” the behavior of another, as though the observer himself were doing the activity. For more on Mirror Neurons watch this amazing video on NOVA (once you get to this page, click just below the picture of the people in the middle of the page).

All this to say it’s important to spend time around others who are behaving and acting in ways that you want to mirror and have mirrored in your life. Your brain automatically “picks up” signals from those around you in ways you might never consciously realize. In fact, you become like those you spend time with, so it pays to be intentional our choices in friends and mentors.