Work with an EMDR Therapist in Nashville, TN
Whether you’ve tried talk therapy before and didn’t find it very helpful, or you’re new to therapy and want to start with an approach that’s strongly evidence-based— you’re in the right place.
At The Gaia Center, all of our therapists specialize in working with trauma, and while there are many effective ways of doing so, one of our favorites is EMDR therapy.
In addition to "big T” traumas (what we often think of as traumatic experiences), EMDR is effective with a variety of issues because it is a powerful way of “rewiring” the brain by identifying the root of your stuck points (i.e. a feeling of never being good enough) and helping you move through those roots more thoroughly than we can with traditional talk therapy alone.
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The fields of psychology and psychotherapy sure love their acronyms, don’t they? In the case of EMDR, it’s a mouthful: “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing,” and was originally developed in the late 1980s by Francine Shapiro.
The “eye movements” can actually be any form of bilateral (side to side) stimulation, including visual, tactile, and auditory. Your EMDR therapist at The Gaia Center will help you identify which form is most effective for you—and yes, EMDR can be highly effective in virtual therapy, too.
The “desensitization and reprocessing” piece refers to bringing up a memory that is somehow connected to a symptom impacting you in the present, while engaging in the bilateral stimulation to access a deeper part of the brain than just the “thinking/talking” brain, and maintaining “dual attention” of both the memory and the present, while we allow your brain the space the process the experience more thoroughly and effectively than it was able to at the time of the original event.
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While reading about EMDR often leaves folks scratching their heads initially (let’s be honest, it sounds weird, right?!)— since its original conception, extensive research has repeatedly found it to be an effective, evidence-based treatment for helping people recover from PTSD, distressing life experiences, anxiety, and more.
EMDR is based on a theoretical approach that Shapiro called the Adaptive Information Processing model, which essentially means that the brain— like other parts of the body (think of your skin when you get a cut)— will naturally move toward healing, given the right conditions.
However, those “right conditions” often don’t just organically arise, and EMDR was discovered to be a highly effective process for facilitating those conditions. While questions remain regarding all the “mechanisms of action” within EMDR that make it so effective, what’s clear in the research and from thousands of client experiences in the past several decades, is that EMDR is a powerful approach for psychological healing. Especially for people who have found limited success with talk therapy, EMDR can provide a real possibility for a different outcome.
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Our founder Valerie Martin used to be very skeptical about EMDR— but when she saw first-hand how effective it was for clients in the residential treatment center where she started her therapy career, and then read more about EMDR client successes in Bessel van der Kolk’s groundbreaking book The Body Keeps the Score, she decided to take the plunge and do EMDR training. That was in 2015, and Valerie is now certified and consults with numerous other skilled Gaia Center therapists who are also EMDR trained.
Research indicates that EMDR can significantly reduce symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and depression by helping individuals process and integrate traumatic memories. Studies, such as those published in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, demonstrate its efficacy, with many clients experiencing relief in fewer sessions compared to traditional talk therapy. By targeting the brain’s natural healing processes, EMDR offers a robust, evidence-based approach to mental health treatment.
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We take an approach to EMDR that is strongly somatic and attachment-focused, which makes it a highly effective way to treat relational trauma, like healing from dysfunctional family systems or unhealthy relationships.
To learn more about EMDR therapy and the research supporting it, check out EMDRIA— and be sure to visit the Trauma section on our Resources page for tons of great books, podcasts, and more.
