EMDR & IFS — 🙏🏼

IFS (Internal Family Systems) &
EMDR (Eye-Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing)

EMDR and IFS are two psychotherapies that research has shown are effective in treating trauma and related disorders. I have seen hundreds of clients freed from their depression, anxiety… and various mental health issues by using these psychotherapies.

Both therapies are based on how your body remembers the past and how your nervous system reacts to try to avoid bad things from happening again. Many of these reactions actually work against you, e.g. inner critics, obsessive hyper-vigilance, unhealthy eating or substance abuse, anger, even anxiety and depression. Our nervous systems’ efforts to help us are actually the reason most people come to therapy!

IFS is based on the mindfulness practice of paying attention to what’s going on inside. You can notice there are emotions, sensations, thoughts and memories, which may relate to painful and disturbing past experiences. They may well also relate to real fears and anxiety that you’re feeling because of the corona virus. You can also notice there are times when you are functioning well. By learning to navigate your inner world you can heal from past hurt, stop acting in dysfunctional ways, and get better at being your best self. (See my blogs if you’d like to learn more.)

EMDR is known for the remarkable effect moving one’s eyes back and forth rapidly can have on negative memories; the emotions become less and less disturbing. It’s most famous (and perhaps the most requested psychotherapy) for treating war-related, and sexual assault-related PTSD. However, it works for anything related to a disturbing past memory. As you might know, REM stands for Rapid Eye Movement. EMDR’s eye-movements likely uses the same brain information processing system as in REM sleep to help the brain realize that you are no longer in danger, you did get through it, you are now in 2021, and (with regard to that event) you are now safe.

Both IFS and EMDR help your inner/sub-conscious self to understand that what it’s scared of is simply a memory (a bunch of neurons firing) of something that happened in the past, is no longer a threat, and both therapies provide effective methods to let go of the emotions and beliefs related to that past event so you can be in the present as your best self. We’d all like to be able to do this just by trying to convince ourselves of these things but the sub-conscious mind is strong enough to prevent it and most people need the help of something like these therapies, and a good therapist, to work effectively with our sub-conscious memories, and thereby free us from our pasts.
(See my blogs to read more about them and other therapy topics.)