Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy can help to alleviate a variety of mental health challenges, heal past traumatic, overwhelming life experiences, resolve guilt and shame, and help to regulate the nervous system. This blog post will briefly discuss EMDR therapy as a whole and how EMDR therapy for men near Milwaukee, WI can support their mental health and trauma recovery.
What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR therapy helps clients by igniting their own body’s innate ability to heal. In EMDR therapy this is referred to as the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model. This AIP theory posits that when human beings experience high levels of stress, overwhelm, or trauma, the nervous system can become dysregulated or not work correctly.  This dysregulation then creates trauma responses, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), or Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD).
EMDR works by reigniting the AIP system and healing the nervous system. As this process takes place, past difficult and traumatic experiences are reprocessed and integrated into the nervous system. By doing this process, clients often notice decreases in negative self-talk and intrusive memories, fewer flashbacks, a more stable mood, and overall, an inner calm which leads to an increase in self-confidence.
Understanding Trauma in Men
Men tend to downplay the impact of trauma or overwhelm in their lives. This can be a very adaptive response as, at times, we need to compartmentalize the stress response if we don’t have the necessary resources or time to effectively heal. The other side of this is that as the internal stress builds, so do the mood swings, issues with sleep, and challenges with anger. Bottling stressful experiences up may lead to numbness in life, suppressing emotions, and emotional detachment from oneself and others. However, these changes can be healed and stabilized.
How EMDR Therapy Works
EMDR therapy is an eight-phased form of psychotherapy. Follow this link here if you’d like to read more about EMDR therapy. Each phase builds on one another to help stabilize the nervous system before distressing memories are targeted for reprocessing. Reprocessing memories does not usually take place until phase four of the EMDR protocol. Two of the skills that underpin EMDR’s effectiveness are dual awareness and bilateral stimulation.
Both skills noted in the sentence above begin to be implemented in phase two of the EMDR protocol. EMDR teaches the skill of dual awareness. This skill occurs when someone can internally notice sensations, emotions, and thoughts while simultaneously engaging in a mindfulness or guided imagery activity. This dual awareness skill, or ability to notice two independent experiences, helps to protect the nervous system from going into a fight, flight, or freeze response. Phase two also begins to implement bilateral stimulation which is either through tapping or eye movements. These actions tend to reignite the AIP system to start the healing and reprocessing process.
Is Online EMDR Therapy or In-Person Better?
The research is quite clear, both online individual EMDR therapy as well as in-person EMDR therapy are effective in helping people heal from past traumatic experiences. Some factors to consider when making the decision between online therapy versus in-person are personal preference, drive time and flexibility, and convenience. Again, both formats of therapy are effective in supporting trauma recovery and healing.
Find EMDR Therapist for Men
At Revitalize Mental Health PLLC, we specialize in providing EMDR therapy for men. Men face specific challenges throughout our society, including trauma, childhood neglect, grief and loss, and guilt and shame. EMDR therapy can help to heal the body and stabilize the symptoms that cause problems in your life.
We provide a free 15-minute consultation call to ensure we are a good fit to support you on your healing journey. This can be scheduled by submitting a form online here or calling us at 720.295.6703. We offer in-person therapy sessions for those living near Kenosha, WI, and the Southern Milwaukee, WI area as well as online EMDR therapy for people living throughout Wisconsin and Colorado. We look forward to hearing from you in the future!
