Integrating EMDR and Somatic Psychotherapy

In prior articles, I've discussed how I use an integrative approach to psychotherapy to tailor therapy to the needs of each client. In this article, I'm focusing specifically on the integration of EMDR and somatic psychotherapy as a powerful combination to overcome psychological trauma.

See my articles: 

What is EMDR Therapy? 

What is Adjunctive EMDR Therapy? 

Using Somatic Psychotherapy

Integrative Psychotherapy

Integrating EMDR and Somatic Psychotherapy

How EMDR Therapy Developed
EMDR therapy was originally developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. in the mid-1980s for PTSD (postraumatic stress disorder).  It is one of the most researched therapies that has been shown to be effective to help clients to overcome trauma.

Since that time, EMDR has been shown to be effective for other problems, including performance enhancement, substance abuse, development trauma and other problems (see my article: EMDR Therapy and Performance Enhancement).

Enhancements to EMDR Therapy
EMDR therapy has also changed since its inception to include various enhancements to make it more effective for a wide variety of clients in therapy.  

One of those enhancements is the recognition that EMDR combines well with most other therapies, including psychodynamic psychotherapy, psychoanalysis, cognitive behavioral therapy and mind-body oriented therapies, like somatic psychotherapy (see my article: Contemporary Psychoanalysis and EMDR Therapy: A Powerful Combination to Overcome Trauma).

Combining EMDR Therapy and Somatic Psychotherapy
Combining EMDR therapy and somatic therapy works especially well for clients who are cut off from their emotional and physical experience of their body.  These clients often intellectualize about their problems.  They might be able to talk about their problems with significant insight, but that's where their experience ends.

Unfortunately, this usually means that their problems don't change.  So, they can remain in regular talk therapy for years and they experience no resolution to their problems (see my article: EMDR Therapy When Talk Therapy Isn't Enough).

By combining EMDR with somatic psychotherapy, the psychotherapist helps clients to connect to their experience on an emotional and physical level so that the client is no longer intellectualizing with about their problems (see my article: Experiential Therapy, Like EMDR, Helps to Achieve Emotional Breakthroughs.

The use of somatic psychotherapy also helps to titrate the therapeutic work in a way that makes it manageable for the client, and since every client is different in terms of his or her window of tolerance, this makes the combination of EMDR and somatic therapy ideal for tailoring the therapy to the individual client's needs (see my article: Expanding Your Window of Tolerence in Therapy to Overcome Emotional Problems).

For instance, if a client is processing a traumatic memory from childhood with EMDR therapy and she begins to feel afraid, a psychotherapist who uses somatic psychotherapy can help the client to calm down and ground by asking her to become aware of how her feet feel against the floor and how the floor and all the other floors below support the weight of her body. 

The therapist can also bring the client's attention to other parts of her body where she feels calm and safe.  Then, when the client is ready, they can return to processing the trauma with EMDR.

When the client knows in advance that the work will be titrated in a way that she controls based on what feels manageable for her, she is more likely to be open to processing traumatic experiences that she might have been reticent to do before.

Using somatic psychotherapy with EMDR also helps to integrate changes made in therapy because the therapeutic work is experienced more fully based on the mind-body connection rather than just depending on an intellectual integration.

Getting Help in Therapy
EMDR and somatic psychotherapy are a powerful combination for processing traumatic experiences as well as for performance enhancement.

If you have unresolved traumatic experiences that are holding you back and preventing you from maximizing your potential, you could benefit from working with a licensed mental health professional (see my article: How to Choose a Psychotherapist).

Rather than struggling on your own, you owe it to yourself to get help from a skilled psychotherapist who can help you overcome your problems.

About Me
I am a licensed New York City psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who uses integrative psychotherapy in.a dynamic and collaborative way to tailor each treatment to the needs of the particular client.

I work with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or Email me. 

EMDR Therapy For Performance Enhancement

Many clients start psychotherapy because they want to enhance their performance in their career or in their personal life.  Although EMDR therapy is generally known for resolving psychological trauma, since it was developed by Francine Shapiro, Ph.D. in the 1980s EMDR has been used in many other areas, including anxiety reduction, overcoming phobias, and performance enhancement (see my articles: What is EMDR Therapy? and What is Adjunctive EMDR?).

EMDR Therapy For Performance Enhancement

Executives, actors, writers, singers, athletes, artists and people in many other situations seek help from EMDR therapists to overcome their performance anxiety and their related negative beliefs that are getting in the way of their success.

The following fictional vignette illustrates how EMDR therapy is used for performance enhancement:

Fictional Vignette: EMDR Therapy For Performance Enhancement:

Tom
When Tom's director told him that he was promoting him to an executive level position with a significant increase in salary, Tom was thrilled.  He worked hard for this promotion, and he was happy that he was being recognized by his director.

Then, his director told Tom that part of the new responsibilities would be to give presentations to the board of directors, and Tom felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

While Tom really wanted the promotion, he dreaded giving presentations--especially to the board of directors.  He suffered with a lifelong dread of public speaking.  Even when he was in high school and he was asked to address his teachers and fellow students, he stammered and trembled on stage.

Giving his presentation in high school was one of the most humiliating experiences of his life. After that experience, he avoided public speaking.  Even in college, he managed to get through without having to do a presentation.  But now he knew that there was too much at stake for his career and he wanted to overcome his fear of public speaking.

A close friend, Jim, told Tom that his son, who was a college basketball player, was seeing an EMDR therapist for performance enhancement.  His son tended to "choke" in a big game, which made him feel ashamed and discouraged.

Jim told Tom that the EMDR therapist helped his son to overcome his performance anxiety and build his self confidence, which helped to enhance his performance.  He recommended that Tom find an EMDR therapist to deal with his anxiety about public speaking.

Tom had never heard of EMDR therapy before, but he looked it up online and saw all the positive research about EMDR's effectiveness, so he contacted an EMDR therapist to begin therapy.

During the first several sessions, Tom's EMDR therapist obtained information about Tom's family history and helped him to develop internal resources.

Then, they were ready to begin processing Tom's fear of public speaking.  His therapist asked Tom to recall his memory of speaking in the auditorium in high school.  After Tom accessed the memory, she asked him several questions, including what his negative belief is about himself as it is related to that memory.

Tom thought about it and said, "I feel powerless when I have to speak in front of an audience."  He told his therapist that he wanted to feel confident and in control when he does public speaking.

Then, Tom and his EMDR therapist began the desensitization phase of EMDR.  While they were doing EMDR, they discovered that there were several other earlier memories that were related to the memory they were working on so, over time, they processed these underlying memories as well.

When Tom no longer felt anxious about his memories, they worked on the current situation and a future situation until Tom no longer felt anxious about speaking in front of the board of directors.

When his therapist checked with Tom to find out if he felt confident and in control about public speaking, Tom said he was very surprised that he actually did feel confident and in control.

The proof came a few months later when, in his new executive position, Tom had to go before the board of directors to do his first presentation to them.

Before the presentation, Tom was surprised to notice that he wasn't at all nervous.  He felt confident that he was the top expert in his company for the topic he would be presenting, so there was no one else who knew more about it than he did.

EMDR Therapy For Performance Enhancement

During his presentation, Tom felt confident and in control.  He also saw his director standing in the back of the room smiling and nodding at him, which made him feel even more confident.

Afterwards, the chief executive officer thanked Tom for an informative presentation and told him that he hoped it would be the first of many.

Conclusion
EMDR therapy was originally developed to help clients to overcome psychological trauma.  However, since it was first developed, EMDR therapy has been found to be highly effective for other types of problems, including performance enhancement.

The fictional vignette presented above represents one way that clients react to EMDR therapy for performance enhancement.  Of course, everyone is different and will have their own idiosyncratic responses.

Getting Help in Therapy
If you're struggling with a problem related to performance anxiety--whether it relates to career issues, taking steps to improve your health or whatever anxiety might be getting in your way of success--you could benefit from EMDR therapy.

The complexity of the anxiety-related problem will be different for each person.  Some people can overcome their performance anxiety in a relatively short time.  Other people have more complicated problems that have roots that go beyond the current situation and would need more time doing EMDR.

Rather than struggling on your own, you could benefit from working with a licensed mental health professional who is an EMDR therapist.

Overcoming your performance anxiety can open up a new world for you.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist (see my article: Therapeutic Benefits of Integrative Psychotherapy).

I work with individual adults and couples.

I have helped clients to free themselves from their performance anxiety so they could go on to achieve success in their fields.

I also work as an adjunct psychotherapist for clients who want EMDR, clinical hypnosis or Somatic Experience and who want to remain with their primary therapist 

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy is a form of psychotherapy that was developed by psychologist, Francine Shapiro, in the 1980s (see my article: Experiential Therapy, Like EMDR, Can Achieve Emotional Breakthroughs).

What is EMDR Therapy?

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR was originally developed to treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Since that time, EMDR has been used successfully for many other issues, including stress, insomnia, performance anxiety, performance enhancement, abuse, substance abuse, sexual addiction and many other issues (see my article: How EMDR Therapy Works: EMDR and the Brain).

Why is EMDR Therapy More Effective Than Regular Talk Therapy?

EMDR Tends to Work Faster Than Talk Therapy for Trauma: 

Generally speaking, EMDR tends to work faster for trauma than most talk therapies. Among other things, much depends on the skill of the therapist as well as the rapport between therapist and client. Also, most clients will require a period of time where the EMDR therapist helps clients to develop internal resources and coping skills before the actual EMDR processing begins (see my article: EMDR Therapy: When Talk Therapy Isn't Enough).

EMDR Uses a 3-Pronged Approach: Past, Present, Future: 

EMDR uses a three-pronged protocol: working with the client's past, present and future. EMDR processes old memories, creating new links with adaptive functioning.

Current problems are targeted and desensitized and past and future events are integrated to assist clients in healthy functioning. 

There has been quite a bit of research on the success of EMDR and the treatment of trauma and PTSD. However, no one is completely sure as to how or why EMDR works. It is believed that part of its success is due to the fact that EMDR uses Rapid Eye Movement (REM) as its basis.

EMDR helps process negative memories and emotions. It helps the brain to successfully process these experiences.

Getting Help in EMDR Therapy

If you have been unable to work through your history of trauma, you could benefit from working with an EMDR therapist.

Once you are free from the effects of your traumatic history, you can live a more fulfilling life.

About Me
I am a licensed NYC psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR and Somatic Experiencing therapist who works with individual adults and couples.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.

How EMDR Works: Overcoming Emotional Trauma

What is Adjunctive EMDR Therapy?