Join me and my friend Nat as we explore “weird therapy” EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing). Nat turned to EMDR when her trauma from her husband’s sexual addiction and their subsequent divorce became too much for her to cope with. The fear that she felt as she watched their life unravel turned into a distrust and anger of men in general, and that’s not how she wanted to live.
EMDR is a therapy that uses sounds and eye movement to help heal deep emotional wounds by retraining the brain to heal those wounds instead of letting them fester. The first phase involves similar aspects to normal therapy, where the therapist asks questions about the trauma and tries to identify a defining memory that symbolizes the trauma. The person then identifies a negative belief she has about the memory. Then the therapist helps the person through several rounds of reprocessing, which can include eye movements, tones, or taps. As the rounds progress, the negative thought is replaced with a positive, healing thought. Nat explains it really well in the podcast.
I promise, this story is worth it! For the record, Bloom does not support man-hating in any form. Warning: this episode can be triggering for those who have dealt with sexual abuse or assault, but it also highlights a “weird therapy” that might help you.
Listen to the episode below and subscribe on iTunes or Soundcloud.