Are You Ready To Process Your Trauma And Reclaim Your Life? 

• Are you struggling to recover from a recent situational trauma such as an accident, assault, serious injury or another frightening experience?
• Has abuse or neglect from your childhood or other past experiences affected your ability to develop a healthy, trusting relationship with yourself or others?
• Are you easily triggered, perpetually anxious or often in either a hyper-vigilant or depressive state?
• Have you struggled with poor self-esteem and turned to drugs, alcohol, food, sex, self-harming behaviors or other potentially harmful ways to cope with pain?
• Are you looking for an effective treatment that can stop intrusive thoughts and frightening memories so you can feel normal and whole again?

The after-effects of trauma – whether caused by a single incident or the culmination of prolonged abuse – can be devastating, and can impact all aspects of your life. You may feel alone in your pain and ashamed by what happened to you, making it hard to connect with and trust others. Or, you may perpetually feel on edge, afraid you’ll be triggered into panic or that you’ll experience the same trauma again. Your nights might be restless and plagued with incessant thoughts or nightmares, making it hard to fall and stay asleep. You may also find yourself avoiding situations that remind you of the trauma, or turning to substances to numb your thoughts and emotions.

Countless Americans Struggle With The After-Effects Of Trauma 

Millions of Americans- roughly 60% of men and about half of all women- struggle to heal from at least one trauma in their lifetimes. Men are more likely to struggle with the after-effects of trauma following an accident, physical assault, disaster, combat or witnessing a death or injury. Women often experience trauma through sexual assaults and abuse. Following an intense traumatic experience, roughly 7 percent of the population will develop Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). People suffering from PTSD often experience flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, and nightmares. It is also common to begin avoiding people, activities and places that might trigger memories of the trauma.

You may have tried therapy in the past to work through painful feelings and memories, but still feel stuck in grief and trapped by trauma. Whether you are struggling with PTSD, feel dissociated or hyper-vigilant in the wake of a recent trauma, or were abused as a child, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment can mitigate trauma symptoms and help you move forward in your life.

EMDR Treatment Can Help You Let Go Of Negative Feelings And Beliefs 

If you’re struggling to work through a trauma, EMDR treatment can help. This proven, effective treatment can help you move past your traumatic experience(s), process trauma and cultivate a calmer, more grounded and balanced life. (For information about additional trauma therapies, please click here.)

Before beginning EMDR, your highly skilled and compassionate Orenstein Solutions therapist, Dr. Amy Mistler, will educate you on trauma, trauma research and how humans process trauma so that you can become an expert on your own healing experience. Dr. Amy Mistler will also help you build healthy coping skills, increase your resiliency, and strengthen your ability to ground into and self-regulate your emotions before you revisit your trauma.

Once you and Dr. Mistler believe you are fully prepared to engage in the actual EMDR treatment, you’ll identify key components of the traumatic experience as well as any negative beliefs and feelings that you’ve developed as a result. For example, you may hold certain images in your mind, feel unsafe, struggle with self-esteem issues or experience uncomfortable sensations in parts of your body. Through the EMDR treatment process, you can discharge the trauma that’s been held in your body and begin feeling more mentally, emotionally and physically empowered.

EMDR works through recalling memory while the body is engaged in bilateral stimulation, achieved by moving your eyes left to right, wearing headphones that beep back and forth between the ears or holding buzzers that alternate between vibrating in your left and right hands. The latest research suggests that the bilateral stimulation used in EMDR aids the release of emotions so that the trauma can finally come full circle and be processed.

Under the guidance of Dr. Amy Mistler, EMDR treatment can help you process your trauma and enjoy a calmer and more relaxed way of being. Rather than spending countless hours and energy trying to manage trauma symptoms, you can focus instead on your goals and start living your life again. With guidance through this effective approach to healing, you can let go of your guard, start sleeping through the night, stop intrusive thoughts and memories and develop closer, more intimate relationships with others.

Although you may recognize that you need help processing your trauma, you still may have questions or concerns about EMDR treatment…

 

I’m afraid that I’ll feel worse if I revisit my trauma experience. 

This is a common and understandable concern, which is why you and Dr. Amy Mistler will do as much preparation work as needed before you begin EMDR. If you’re still uncomfortable with the idea of EMDR, there are many other highly effective approaches to trauma therapy to consider. While Dr. Mistler is there to support, guide and educate you, you are fundamentally in charge of your trauma therapy process. You’ll decide what treatment steps you want to take, when you’re ready.

My trauma was ongoing – it occurred over many years during childhood – and a lot of my memories are now a blur. What if I can’t pinpoint specific memories to work from? 

EMDR is highly effective for treating ongoing, developmental traumas that occurred in childhood. You don’t need to recall a sequence of events. Rather, you can begin with an image or feeling that is associated with the worst part of the trauma. From there, EMDR treatment calms your mind so it can go where it needs to, allowing the trauma to surface and process. Over three EMDR sessions, we can see what arises, explore themes, and identify what is stuck so you can process both direct and peripheral trauma experiences.

How long does EMDR treatment take? 

Everyone is different and responds to and processes trauma differently. However, most clients begin to see progress within 3-5 sessions of EMDR and many clients achieve their goals within 8-12 sessions of EMDR. You’ll meet with Dr. Mistler at least once a week, although it’s possible to meet multiple times a week if you want to process your trauma more intensely and an accelerated schedule works better for your life.

We provide services in the Raleigh-Cary metropolitan area. We invite you to call us for a free 15-minute consultation to discuss your specific needs and to answer any questions you have about EMDR and our practice.