Left untreated, trauma creates its own trajectory of ongoing painful physical and psychological symptoms that can be crippling and tragic.  These traumatic events, whether in the form of recognizable trauma like war, a car accident, or responding to triggers in our childhood patterns of neglect or abuse may overwhelm an individual’s ability to process the event.  Effectively these experiences remain frozen, unprocessed experiences.  Our brains adapt by current environments as if the trauma were still happening, long after the danger is past.  In addition, individuals often develop other patterns of self-protection to ease the emotional pain. These strategies can become self-destructive such as addictions, rage, isolating, and others.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is a psychotherapy framework and trauma treatment protocol developed in the late 1980’s by Francine Shapiro. Originally, EMDR was used to treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) which is a survival response to situations of life or death.  EMDR is a powerful tool for treating PTSD, childhood neglect or abuse, anxiety, depression, phobias, smaller life disturbances, as well as for performance enhancement.  It is also used for life stressors, such as divorce, grief, job loss, bullying, and medical traumas.

EMDR utilizes the inherent healing quality of our brain and bodies own Adaptive Information Processing systems to help clients eliminate the distress and disturbance of a difficult or traumatic event.  EMDR uses a multi-phased process that is all encompassing in addressing the complex ways that our bodies and brains store a traumatic experience.   In addition, EMDR allows clients to reprocess traumatic experiences from the place of here and now safety, so that the experience can truly be in the past rather than a source of ongoing pain.

There are now more studies on the healing effects of EMDR for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) than any other psychotherapeutic approach.

The concept of Mindfulness originated from the the traditions of Buddhist meditation.  Mindfulness is the ability to access a state of spacious well-being by beginning to bring interested, non-judgmental attention to disturbing thoughts and feelings, rather than being overwhelmed by them. As people relate to their disturbing inner experiences from this calm, mindful place, they feel less overwhelmed and become more accepting of the aspects of themselves with which they’ve been struggling.

The ability to ‘sit’ with distressing emotions in a thoughtful, curious way becomes the basis for understanding ourselves and our motivations in deeper ways.  The clinical value of mindfulness interventions has been demonstrated for many psychological difficulties, including depression, anxiety, chronic pain, substance abuse, insomnia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

It doesn’t matter which therapeutic approach we take, be it psychodynamic, cognitive-behavioral, humanistic, or any other. Mindfulness practices can be tailored to fit the particular needs of our patients. Though historically mindfulness practices have been presented as one-size-fits-all remedies, as the field matures we’re beginning to understand how these practices affect different individuals with different problems, how to modify them in different clinical situations, and how to work with the inevitable obstacles that arise.

Mindfulness can also enhance emotional well-being by supporting us in developing beneficial qualities such as acceptance, attention, compassion, equanimity, and presence that enrich and enliven our work and help us avoid burnout. Once we have developed these qualities in ourselves, it is safe to thoughtfully introduce practices that lead to a wide variety of clinical benefits.

A long standing challenge in psychotherapy, as well as spirituality, is whether the goal is to help people come to accept the inevitable pain of life or to actually transform and heal the pain, shame, or terror, so that it’s no longer a problem. Are we seeking acceptance or transformation, passive observation or engaged action, a stronger connection to the here-and-now or an understanding of the past?

Many therapeutic attempts to integrate mindfulness have adopted a passive-observer form of mindfulness where a client is helped to notice thoughts and emotions from a place of mental/emotional separation and extend acceptance toward them. The emphasis isn’t on trying to change or replace irrational thoughts, but on noticing them and then acting in ways that the observing self considers more adaptive or functional.

Clearly, learning to mindfully witness experiences helps clients a great deal, even those with diagnoses previously considered intractable. But what if it were possible to transform this inner drama, rather than just keep it at arm’s length by taking mindfulness one step further?

Mindfulness is incredibly helpful to develop a sense of our observing self.  Internal Family Systems (IFS) builds on this important first step of non-judgmental noticing of internal impulses and body sensations.  IFS guides the client to take the next, powerful step toward understanding, acceptance, and transformation.

Thoughts, emotions, urges, and impulses come from an inner landscape that’s best understood as a kind of internal village, populated by sub-personalities, many of whom were acquired as childhood survival skills. An aspect of ourselves that helped us get through our childhood may now be adversely impacting us now.  As we create internal distance from these parts we begin to see their magnified impact in our lives belongs in the past.  All parts have value but in a fluid way as they’re needed.  When we approach these inner aspects with compassion, calm, and curiosity we begin to ask questions and explore our inner world.  This is a direct experience with ourselves rather than over identifying with our struggling parts, we can now offer comfort.   When clients begin exploring this apparently chaotic and mysterious inner world with curious interest and start asking questions the value of inner family members will begin to emerge. As the process continues, clients will be able to form relationships with their parts. 

Once a client, in a mindful state, enters such an inner dialogue, they learn that their parts are suffering and/or are trying to provide protection.  This results in a shift from the passive-observer to an increasingly engaged and relational form of mindfulness that naturally exists within.

Working in this way can be an intense and challenging task.  At the same time, it is a being present with clients on their inner journey into the territory of pain and hurt along with a sense of wonder and compassion for the rich treasure that exists in every human being.

Emotionally Focused Therapy is a therapy approach that focuses on attachment experiences from childhood that create either an internal sense of security: secure attachment that results in safe reliance on self and others or insecurity which results on over reliance on our own care or over dependence on others.  EFT notices the ways in which our interpersonal interactions get organized into patterns and cycles based on our attachment style. Though the approach is traditionally used for couples therapy, the concepts can be used with families and individuals who want to explore important interpersonal relationships and relationship patterns.

The goal of EFT is to work toward, what’s called “secure attachment.” That is, the idea that each partner can provide a sense of security, protection, and comfort for the other, and can be available to support their partner in creating a positive sense of self and the ability to effectively regulate their own emotions.

This is different than other types of couples therapy where teaching skills, tools, and scripts to a couple is used to improve communication. During an argument, emotions are often too heightened to use the tools and they get tossed out the window as individuals retreat to well known positions.  EFT is really about recognizing the ‘dance’ patterns in a couples arguments and distress.  Then understanding the why and how we get into those patterns in the first place so that we can interrupt them, or when the inevitable disconnect occurs, we can repair and heal them.

The ultimate outcome of treatment involves a new sense of self and a new way of relating to your partner, which in turn, evokes new responses from that partner.