If anxiety is our body’s warning system that danger is present, then it is helpful to figure out what the danger is and then address it. Together, we will put on our “detective hats” to figure out the source of your anxiety. Anxiety can be tied to past events, current situations, or future scenarios. The source of your anxiety is likely to be the focus of your EMDR therapy. EMDR therapy can be used alone or with other approaches to resolve your anxiety and achieve your goals.

If, for example, you process a past event that is fueling your current anxiety, your therapist will ask important questions about the event including your thoughts, feelings, body sensations, and images. Once you start reprocessing, you will start thinking about the event and follow movement with your eyes (or alternatively hold tappers in your hands or self-tap or listen to tones). During the process you will notice what happens with your body, thoughts, and feelings without judging them or just trying to change them. You just go with what comes up and notice how it changes over the course of the reprocessing sessions. While at the beginning people rarely believe that how they feel can ever change, EMDR does help people process through painful memories so that they are no longer stored in that raw, vivid, state specific form. At the same time, EMDR tackles negative beliefs such as “I am not in control,” “I am in danger,” or “I am weak.” Processing results in the strengthening of alternative beliefs such as, “I am capable,” “I can handle it,” and “I can be myself.”

To learn more, click here: https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/emdr-anxiety/

HOW EMDR CAN HELP YOU OVERCOME ANXIETY