E.M.D.R. therapy is highly effective in helping families.
Childhood experiences and family patterns of interaction condition us to habitual and often unconscious ways of interacting with others. Later in life, some patterns of interaction we experienced earlier in childhood may interfere in our adult relationships.
If disturbing unprocessed memories from past experience are being triggered for a family member, negative emotions and constricted perceptions may interfere with their ability to join with the inherent adaptive ability of the family system to move towards health and wholeness.
Family therapists use E.M.D.R. to help family members reprocesses the early disturbing memories, which may be blocking positive change. Reprocessing negative emotions, beliefs and thoughts through E.M.D.R. creates an identify shift enhancing self-confidence and increasing one’s ability to connect with others in a more satisfying and functional way.
E.M.D.R. family therapy uses a multi-pronged approach. Early childhood memories that have set the groundwork for problems are processed first.
Next, present issues, which are triggering negative reactions or behavior for the family member, are targeted for processing. Communication skills, including learning to listen and respond in a way that sustains connection in the face of conflict and individual differences in relationship are explored.
Processing with E.M.D.R. can help liberate family members to make adaptive behavior changes, join the family system in breaking through the negative cycle and patterns of interactions, and solve the problem that brought the family to therapy.
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