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What is EMDR? (Part 2)
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Feb 6, 2025
Welcome to Adaptable | Behavior Explained! This is part 2 of What is EMDR Therapy. Kelly discusses EMDR Therapy, focusing on how it is believed to work and the wide range of presenting issues it can address. She explains that EMDR therapy integrates principles from cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and somatic therapies, addressing past, present, and future anxieties. Kelly also mentions the importance of finding a licensed, trained therapist for EMDR treatment and offers resources to help viewers find one in their area. Overall, she emphasizes the transformative and healing potential of EMDR therapy. I'm Kelly O'Horo, Attachment based EMDR Therapist, EMDRIA Consultant, and Advanced Trainer. I'm a mom of 5, Nonna of 5, wife, and a healer. I have the honor of spending my workdays walking along side people while they brave their healing journeys. I try to live with the generous assumption that we're all doing the best we can with what we know. Therapists are teachers for the "life stuff" and "emotional vocabulary" that may not have been learned due to gaps in our care givers capabilities. In the last 15 years I've learned that people are freaking amazing, resilient, and inspiring. Most importantly, we are hardwired for connection and for healing! I hope to bring an authentic, compassionate, and unpolished approach while we explore a variety of topics such as parenting, marriage, relationships, dating, trauma, attachment, adoption, depression, addiction, anxiety, and love! There's a why for all behaviors and an explanation that makes perfect sense as emotion is at the root of it all. -- Links -- https://linktr.ee/kellyohorolpc https://youtu.be/rLnARKekvgo https://www.emdria.org/find-an-emdr-therapist/
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0:06
hi everyone I'm kellyo horo and this is
0:09
adaptable Behavior explained hi
0:12
everybody thank you for tuning in today
0:14
we're going to talk a little bit about
0:16
EMDR therapy but today we're going to
0:19
talk about how we think it works and
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we're also going to talk about what we
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can treat or what presenting issues or
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problems that people come into a therapy
0:29
with and how we can address those
0:31
problems so we're going to dig in a
0:32
little bit deeper in that way so EMDR
0:35
therapy has principles rooted in
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cognitive behavioral therapy in
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psychodynamic therapy as well as sematic
0:43
therapies so it brings in components
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from all of those modalities the
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cognitive behavioral part is related to
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our negative thinking patterns and the
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way that we have beliefs about oursel
0:54
that are not useful the psychodynamic
0:57
theory is brought in because we need to
1:00
understand our early life experiences
1:02
the origins of our story how we were
1:05
raised and how that is impacted the way
1:07
that we show up today and the sematic
1:10
therapies are brought in because
1:12
ultimately trauma lives in our body and
1:15
how we address the resolution of
1:18
memories that were maladaptively encoded
1:20
we also have to address how things are
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somatically stored so we address through
1:25
um EMDR therapy also sematic experiences
1:29
so so MDR therapy is modeled and uses an
1:34
eight-phase standard protocol but there
1:36
are also many other protocols that have
1:39
been devised and adapted over the years
1:42
to address really specific issues so
1:45
there are protocols for addiction for
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phobias for performance enhancement for
1:52
veterans and First Responders there
1:54
specific protocols for couples and so
1:57
therapists over the years have gotten
1:59
really creative at tweaking and
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modifying protocols in order to address
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very specific presenting issues and what
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I love is that the standard protocol
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really does address most presenting
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issues but when we run into bumps and
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and we need to figure out some ways to
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modify uh we have our we have some
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different tools at our disposal so some
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of the presenting issues that EMDR
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therapy can treat and quite frankly I
2:25
feel like I have the coolest job in the
2:27
whole world because I can see a problem
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when a client comes in and no matter
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what it looks like what I realize is
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it's got its roots in memory everything
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that we're addressing has something to
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do with with memory that was encoded and
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it's still stuck in trauma time and so
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some things that we can address are
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specific phobias I'll give you guys a
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personal example for that I was at a
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training at mria in ad deang who has uh
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come up with a whole bunch of new
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research in our field about how we think
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EMDR works and I'll talk about it in a
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little while he developed a phobia
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protocol and so I volunteered to be the
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demonstration uh patient on stage at
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this conference and I have or had I
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should say a phobia of cockroaches and I
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would get deathly afraid of cockroaches
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and I couldn't even walk outside in the
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summer here in Arizona because I would
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be so jumpy about what if one of them
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crawls across my foot and so he gets me
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on stage and he does the phobia protocol
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and he has me imagine the worst case
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scen iio and I literally started crying
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on stage as I imagined cockroaches
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falling from the ceiling from from my
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from my ceiling in my house and landing
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on me and in my shirt and I was just so
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upset and so disregulated and in 17
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minutes I had an entirely different
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vantage point of how I experienced
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cockroaches before and I even had this
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imaginal experience at the end where I
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imagined them being the sort of the
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saviors of our world because they clean
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up everything that that no no other
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animals or bugs or insects wants to
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clean up and I imagined them you know
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running for their lives when I would
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almost step on one because they were so
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scared and they're not scary and they
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don't want to hurt me and so my
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relationship with that former fear is
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completely different and I'm not jumpy
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anymore so EMDR is some kind of such
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cool magic with things like that um but
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it can treat things like depression
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where I had to learn to shut down as a
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child and I my needs just went unmet
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went unmet went unmet and so I have a a
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depressive or a hypo aroused State and
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it's chronic and it's long lasting and
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so it can treat depression it can treat
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grief and loss and it doesn't
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necessarily get rid of grief but it
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accelerates the grief process so that
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anything else that's tied with grief can
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be minimized so if there's some betrayal
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or if there's responsibility or if
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there's shock all of those components of
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grief are really or that can be part of
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a grief experience those can be
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addressed so that the grief process can
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be cleaner and and and a little bit
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smoother and more expeditious it can
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treat addiction it can treat positive
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feelings associated with addiction like
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Euphoria and relief and excitement there
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are protocols that address the
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underpinnings for uh the traumatic
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experiences or triggers that are related
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to addiction and this is some of the
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this is some of the work that I really
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enjoy doing because just like negative
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emotions get attached in our memory
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networks positive experiences do as well
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you know think about your first kiss and
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the cologne that the person was wearing
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or the perfume it's all tied together or
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you know Grandma's apple pie at a
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Holiday brings you right back to that
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time and place well the same thing
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happens with positive emotions that are
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tied to uh addictive behavior like like
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I said like Euphoria or relief or
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excitement and so when we can
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desensitize the parent of those
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experiences we can make the uh desire to
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use something that we don't really want
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to use anymore way diminished and it and
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it can really help to prevent addiction
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cycles and ite it can prevent relapse if
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we do the work on that as well as the
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underlying reasons that we needed to
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address in the first place as to why
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we're using a substance in an abusive
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manner it can treat dissociative
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disorders it can treat obsessive
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compulsive disorders especially if we
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can Target the traumatic events or
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distressing memories that contribute to
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OCD symptoms so kind of like uh let's
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say I have a compulsion to wash my hands
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and I did it as a child and I have some
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trauma around having raw hands or having
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cuts on my hands because I couldn't stop
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washing my hands there's trauma around
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that but there's also anxiety that we're
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addressing with compulsions and
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obsessions that when we can get the
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nervous system to settle down the
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decreasing of the behaviors that we're
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compulsively doing massively reduces we
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can address self-esteem issues and
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self-image issues uh body image issues
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if I don't feel like I'm pretty enough
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or smart enough or skinny enough and I
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can I can do some work around where
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those beliefs and thoughts happened or I
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can Target things related to why I'm not
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taking very good care of myself and
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maybe that has more to do with
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self-worth if we address the memories
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that got encoded in our childhoods uh or
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in our young adult lives that are
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contributing to those experiences of
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self-esteem and self-image we reduce
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those feelings of worthlessness which is
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so beautiful and Powerful we can do cool
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things related to Performance
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enhancement or performance anxiety so we
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can imagine in the future something like
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public speaking and we can set up
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targets related to the Future anticip
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anticipatory anxiety of an experience
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and we can settle down the nervous
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system related to to Performance and so
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that kind of work can be fun with you
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know athletes or presenters or or even
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things that aren't uh so so pressure
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oriented but someone just wants to do a
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better job in an area of their life we
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can address Performance um anxiety we
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can address chronic pain now if we have
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an ecological reason for pain we can't
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physically change the way our bodies
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show up however we can address the
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emotional and psychological aspects of a
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condition we can address the
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relationship with pain and a lot of
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times our body will be telling us when
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we're not listening to our emotional
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experience and it creates chronic pain
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and so it's the dashboard or the data
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that we need to listen to so like let's
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say I had a an injury because I fell out
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of a truck when I was younger and there
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was an ecological reason reason and I
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had a crushed disc and so they come in
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and they say my back hurts so much I I
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can say to them
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do we want to address some of that
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chronic pain and we can help to
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alleviate some of that um experience of
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pain the relationship with pain so
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instead of the brain firing as if we
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need to protect from that injury it can
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settle down and set different send
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different messages to the body that's
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tightening up and protecting as if we
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needed to remain in a protective place
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we can use it for stress
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reduction installing better coping
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skills allowing people to have more
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capacity related to just highly
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stressful lives and dealing with the
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stress that they face on a day-to-day
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basis we can deal with relationship
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issues whether it's parenting or in
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marriages and things that are related to
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our attachment systems we can treat and
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address disordered eating because a lot
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of times the behaviors that have to do
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with disordered eating or eating
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disorders are rooted in attachment
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injuries or sometimes I I even had one
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client where there was a deficit in
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utero because there was a transmission
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issue when she was uh growing in her
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mom's stomach and there was a an angst
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around not getting enough because she
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was essentially starving and they had to
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deliver her pre-term because they
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recognized this issue and baby wasn't
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growing and so in her um in her early
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years she was binge eating and didn't
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understand why she was binge eating and
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we recognized that it was related to
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this early experience in utero where she
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was starving and so we reprocessed this
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developmental experience and she stopped
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with her in binge eating um behaviors we
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can address body image concerns we can
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address pretty much it runs the gamut if
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we have a qualified therapist who
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understands how to treat these uh
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experiences and presenting issues from
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an Adaptive uh information processing
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lens therapists can help to reverse
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engineer and reprocess any of these
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presenting issues but like I said
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results do vary from person to person
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and there are variables that contribute
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to that it could be client Readiness it
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could be the relationship with the
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therapist it could be therapist
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qualifications and experience and so
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these are all part of an interview
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process that's necessary When selecting
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an EMDR therapist and I have a website
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uh uh on my website I have a video that
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helps to instruct how to find an EMDR
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therapist in your area so you can click
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on that link below but EMDR is also
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additionally used with many other
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modalities because like I talked about
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in a previous episode in Phase 2 we're
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doing preparation and education and so
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many of our clients don't have the
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information they don't have the
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groundwork that they needed so this can
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come by way of classes this can come by
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way of things like workshops and groups
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I know in our group we offer
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mindfulness-based stress reduction which
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is a beautiful class to learn how to
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connect in our body to learn how to be
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still to learn how to connect with how
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our body is um showing up and getting
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quiet which can be a really hard thing
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for people to do who've had a lot of
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trauma getting quiet and being still can
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almost be a phobia for many people and
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so these classes help for the
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stabilization and they can also be done
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in conjunction with treatment DBT
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classes are really excellent to help
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with the educational component of what
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uh is needed in the Adaptive part of our
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preparation I run classes like
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codependency educational classes um
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boundaries classes daring way which is
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part of Berne Brown's research to help
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people understand their values and their
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shame and and those types of things and
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so we can use EMDR therapy in
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conjunction with a variety of other uh
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settings in order to accelerate or
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expedite the process now I'm going to
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talk a little bit about how we think it
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works and for those of you who are not
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interested in the mechanisms or
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theoretical un underpinnings this might
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not interest you but for those who kind
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of want to understand better how we
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think it works well I'm here to tell you
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we don't fully know but we have some
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ideas and we have some theory that some
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theories that support why we think that
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it works so one of the theories is that
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it has something to do with almost REM
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sleep and really recreating sort of a
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REM sleep experience in in um awake time
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and we use bilateral stimulation which
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is like eye movements and there's most
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of our research is uh supports eye
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movements as being part of why we think
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it works we also know that part of the
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orienting response is critical in EMDR
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therapy so when I'm setting up a target
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with a client and I'm having them tune
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into an experience that's in the past
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we're oriented with the therapist in a
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dual relation or in a dual awareness way
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where what we're we're present in the
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past but we're also present in the now
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and so there's this dual attention and
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the orienting response to the now so
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remember uh trauma is often times a Time
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orientation issue in our body and
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ultimately we need to be present with
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the now that something happened in the
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past it's not happening now in our most
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recent research and this is where we we
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are thinking now that it's probably more
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related to this but we're not positive
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but we're taxing our working memory when
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we're working on memory work with
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desensitization in that phase and B
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basically we kind of upload the arousal
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we upload the the experience and its
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components of memory that are that are
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hot or that are that are that are
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effectively aroused and then we tax our
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working memory so that can look like we
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do bilaterals we might have somebody do
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simple math problems or recall something
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um like geographical regions or there's
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all sorts of ways we can tax our working
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memory and ultimately what we think is
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happening is that we are changing the
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way memory is held by bringing all of
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this stuff in current time a awareness
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and then when we tax the working memory
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it seems to be able to desensitize and
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sort of store back in a different way no
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longer tied to uh the arousal and the
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distress that it once was tied to so the
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Core Concepts of EMDR therapy uh is that
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it it comes from the model of adaptive
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information processing and it integrates
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aspects from very ious therapeutic
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theories like um cognitive behavioral
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psychodynamic and sematic therapies and
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it suggests that the brain has a natural
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tendency to process and
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adaptively uh resolve distressing
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memories and so under the right
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conditions such as dual attention and
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guided processing we can ultimately be
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able to show up today in the most
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adaptive way and we can grow in ways
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that are so um beautiful and whole and
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it can treat the whole person so the
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EMDR as a Psychotherapy not just as a
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technique or using a specific protocol
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for a presenting issue is really
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comprehensive IT addresses the full
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clinical picture including individual
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relational and behavioral domains uh it
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can optimize the person's capacity to
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respond adaptively it helps to build and
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restore resiliency and promotes personal
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growth and it it really requests and
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requ Ires that the Therapeutic Alliance
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is a is an integral part of the
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therapeutic efficacy and the outcome and
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it can treat like I said presenting
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issues low self-esteem attachment issues
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developmental deficits other personal
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characteristics it's collaborative it's
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evidence-based it's based on the
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Adaptive information processing model
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which is a learning theory and that
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we're hardwired for healing and
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ultimately it can address the past it
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can address present issues and we can we
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can address anticipatory or future
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anxieties and it helps us ultimately
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gain greater sense of control over our
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lives and develop uh adaptive more
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resilience uh more resiliency and
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greater coping mechanisms in the now it
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can reduce the charge associated with
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experiences that have happened in our
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past so that we can live with a freedom
17:24
today that events that happen that exper
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that experienced in our lives don't have
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to live in our body today as if they're
17:32
still happening and that's the freedom
17:34
that I hope you all find and you all
17:37
deserve the other piece that I just want
17:39
to reiterate is it's important that you
17:41
find a licensed trained therapist who I
17:44
recommend continues consultation and uh
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has their own therapy practice as part
17:50
of their growth because it helps us to
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be much more present in the
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transformative experience as a therapist
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to have our own work and so that part
17:59
takes a little bit of interviewing on
18:00
your end but I highly recommend that and
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as I said before I've got a video with
18:06
some resources on how to find uh an EMDR
18:09
therapist in your area so thank you so
18:11
much for listening I hope that you lead
18:13
with love it'll never steer you
18:17
[Music]
18:27
wrong
18:35
you
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