Anxiety feels awful- doesn’t it? Your stomach tightens into a bit of a knot and you don’t know why. Your jaw clenches and your breath constricts. Sometimes you think there is nothing that is going to help- you will never be that calm, cool and collected person. If this sounds like you, EMDR for anxiety might just be the thing that will help you.
Although anxiety makes you suffer, there is good news. We know more about treating anxiety than perhaps any other psychological problem.
EMDR For Anxiety Helps In These 3 Ways:
1. EMDR Strengthens Anxiety Coping Skills
You remember how good you feel when you are completely relaxed. Your muscles are looser, your mind feels lighter and more flexible and solutions to problems seem easier to find. EMDR therapy can help your body and mind get better at being “in your zone”.
Many of the anxiety clients I’ve worked with have described to me how their coping skills seemed to improve effortlessly. They discovered themselves breathing more easily. They saw though the falseness of habitual worries and fears more easily.
2. EMDR Removes The Emotional Charge From Memories and From Images In Your Mind
If you have been through something frightening in your life, like most of us have, then you know what it’s like to dwell on that memory. It’s like your mind returns to that memory on it’s own. You can tell yourself to not think about it, but that doesn’t always work so well.
Some types of worry work like that too. Over and over, you picture some dreaded scenario in your mind. Worry is sometimes “verbal”, we tell ourselves scary things. But much worry is visual; we “see” certain scenes over and over. The power of EMDR for anxiety is that it often removes the emotional charge from such thoughts and images.
3. EMDR Shifts Some Of Your Core Limiting Beliefs
And there is something deeper and more powerful about the ability of EMDR therapy to alleviate anxious suffering. If you pursue this type of therapy, you will probably find that after a while, some of your most restricting negative beliefs will begin to transform. The underlying beliefs that tend to run you will begin to melt away. You will likely start to become a more calm and confident person.f
We suffer from anxiety in part because we react to life from deeply held automatic beliefs that are “lodged” in our brain. For example, under stress, you might think you are in danger, when you actually are not. Or perhaps you tend to think that you are not that capable. Imagine how much easier life would be if your brain automatically sensed your safety, and knew the strength of your own ability.
Since I began offering EMDR for anxiety in the year 2000, I have been honored to serve clients and help them overcome even chronic anxiety. Please learn more about my work with EMDR here. And visit my Anxiety Therapy page to learn more about how I can help you!