EMDR Therapy is known for its treatment of trauma. Dr. Laurel Parnell teaches and demonstrates how it can be healing for emptiness and grief – when relationships were never loving and for when they’re gone.
Dr. Parnell is a leading expert on the therapeutic tool, eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, which is more widely known as EMDR Therapy. While Dr. Parnell has trained thousands of clinicians in EMDR both nationally and internationally, Dr. Parnell has also taught transpersonal psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and was core faculty at John F. Kennedy University in the Graduate School for the Study of Human Consciousness. Currently, Dr. Parnell teaches EMDR through Alliant International University, Omega Institute, Esalen Institute, ID Institut in Kassel Germany, and the The New York Open Center.
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy…
With EMDR Therapy, you might not have to tell your therapist about your actual trauma. Instead, you concentrate on the memory you choose – that you’d like to lessen its hold over you – while you watch or listen to something that is activating both sides of your brain. It’s called bilateral stimulation – and it’s as easy as tapping on both sides of your knees, or holding buzzers in both hands, as they alternate between left and right.
It’s fascinating. Your mind leads you where you need to go. And your therapist is there not as an interpreter, but as a guide.
The goal is to be able to feel safe while your brain consolidates the memories of your trauma. It takes about 3 months of weekly sessions.
In EMDR, first a “safe space” is created in your mind – so if you become emotionally overloaded, you can return to that safe space – with things or people around who help you feel safe and protected. Then if we remember what we learned about how memories are encoded or stored, your mind is actually going through a process of bringing fragments together – so that you can remember the trauma from angles that help you see it differently – and much less emotionally.
How EMDR Therapy has changed over the years…
I remember taking one of Dr. Parnell’s trainings when I was thinking of incorporating EMDR into my own practice – and it was transformative for me.
My first training in EMDR had been boring. Rigid. But exciting even then, because I could see in myself and others some changes that were occurring – even though we were very new at the technique. When I came home and tried it on my own, I found that it was far too plodding for me. So I began looking for other ways of using EMDR Therapy.
That’s when I found Dr. Parnell.
When I saw Dr. Parnell’s version of doing EMDR – what she calls Attachment-Focused EMDR – I could see its power to create lasting healing and change.
Sadly, many clinicians are still teaching the rigid way. That’s not what its founder, Francine Shapiro, conceived at all. In fact, she taught that EMDR Therapy should be ultimately client-centered, not used as another “technique.”
And that’s what Laurel Parnell teaches and demonstrates.
Healing her own tragedy through EMDR Therapy…
Tragically, Dr. Parnell’s son was murdered several years ago. And so she sought guidance herself for a kind of pain that she’d never experienced. She describes that journey eloquently in her new book, Releasing What Isn’t Yours. She shares the extremely moving story of that murder – and how she managed to use EMDR and spiritual guides to help her understand and release what wasn’t hers to carry – at least not for her entire life.
She’s a powerful healer and teacher. And you can go see her doing EMDR for yourself if you go to her website – https://drlaurelparnell.com/or take one of her trainings.
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