When you hear the word “trauma” you may question if this applies to you or your life. You may even say to yourself “I don’t know if I have experienced something traumatic.” Another way of looking at “trauma” is reflecting on if you have experienced adverse life experiences that significantly affected and continue to affect you today. If you have experienced an event or several events that have influenced the way you see yourself, interact with and relate to others or view the world, EMDR therapy may be beneficial. 
EMDR therapy can be an effective treatment if you have experienced or are currently experiencing any of the following: anxiety, depression, trauma/adverse life experiences, substance abuse, obsessive compulsive disorder, Bipolar disorder/mood instability or emotional disregulation, grief and loss and/or unhealthy attachments in relationships.
Sometimes, talking about our trauma history can be re-triggering, almost as if we are reliving the experience, which can feel counterproductive. Eye-Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is a therapy that allows for reprocessing of traumatic or distressing experiences without having to express and explore them in detail. EMDR therapy is an 8-phase protocol that provides the necessary steps to identify, activate, reprocess, stabilize and contain. Some of our memories are stored in an area of our brain (limbic system) that make it difficult to respond to our present experiences in healthy and adaptive ways. An example of this would be when we engage in fight-flight-freeze response. Through the reprocessing phases of EMDR therapy, we attempt and often successfully move one or more of these memories to the area of our brain (neocortex) where we are able to more effectively cope with our emotions and make informed decisions about what to do next. Reprocessing past experiences can desensitize them in ways that reduce the distress they cause and the emotional suffering unintentionally created. Sometimes, adverse life experiences that we have encountered at various periods of our lives interfere with the way we experience our lives in both the present and the future. Identifying, exploring and reprocessing these distressing experiences can have a profoundly positive affect on the way we feel, the way we see ourselves and the world around us, the way we perceive others and engage in relationships, as well as provide significant relief from the emotional suffering we have experienced for years.

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Internal Family Systems (IFS)

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Internal Family Systems (IFS), which is often referred to as "parts" work, is a therapeutic approach focusing on the identification and exploration of our internal system to work toward reducing internal distress and gaining an increased sense of self. IFS gives us the opportunity to explore the various parts of our internal system that make up who we are and ways we have moved through the world. We learn about who we are, not just what we do or have always done. IFS emphasizes that if we can work toward building relationships with internal parts of ourselves, then we can have increased access to our natural and innate ability for openness, curiosity and compassion. When we have increased access to openness, curiosity and compassion, we can show up for ourselves and the people we love in ways that are connecting and healing. With the use of IFS, we also have the ability to reduce the intensity of protective efforts to begin to heal internal wounds.