How does EMDR work? Can it help people recover from trauma, PTSD, addiction and other kinds of emotional health challenges?
Actor Jameela Jamil comments: “So I did EMDR therapy…I found that very effective…
“I found with traditional therapies or even with CBT, it required me to do a lot of homework and work all the time and having to conduct which I am quite a work shy person, I didn’t appreciate having to constantly have to check myself in challenging and triggering situations.
“And what EMDR did is it it truly removed the emotion that was linked to the traumatic memory or thought process, it just sort of cut it off for me…”
She recalls what led her to this therapy:
“I had some terrible, abusive experiences in the dark as a child. And I became afraid of the dark until I was 28 years old, couldn’t sleep in the dark, couldn’t be alone in a house, had to check in every cupboard, under every bed, in every single room again, and again. And again. I had terrible OCD around like my safety.
“And I couldn’t really sleep. So sleep deprived for like, basically 28 years, which made me incredibly depressed and suicidal.
“So I went to this EMDR therapy just for that, because I decided to move to America. And I was like, I can’t go there, this afraid. I can’t spend my 30s as afraid as I’ve spent the last three decades of my life. And so I did EMDR therapy and within two sessions…”
The audio in the first segment is from a video conversation between Russell Brand and actor Jameela Jamil ('The Good Place' series, among other projects): Can EMDR Remove Fear & Shame?!
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Psychologist Cheryl Arutt finds EMDR is a "psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from distressing life experiences, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorders."
(The second segment in the audio is an excerpt from her TED Talk "That Good Feeling of Control".)
Dr Arutt specializes in Trauma Recovery and Creative Artist Issues, and uses EMDR to help her clients. She writes:
“Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) is a powerful evidence-based trauma treatment…
“Through EMDR therapy, people are able to reprocess traumatic information until it is no longer psychologically disruptive, allowing the brain to resume its natural healing process.”
See link to transcript, a video about EMDR with Dr. Arutt, and more in article: Can EMDR Therapy Relieve Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, Addiction and more?
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Dr Mihaela Ivan Holtz, Psy.D., LMFT of Creative Minds Psychotherapy helps creative people in TV/Film, performing and fine arts, and writes about the emotional and creative pleasures - and challenges - of their inner life as artists.
She writes in one of many articles on her site:
As a creative or performer, you use your life experiences to make your art.
You call upon the most magical and painful moments in your life in order to speak and connect to your audience.
Through your art, you celebrate life’s greatest moments, bringing awareness to the entire spectrum of our complex human condition.
In this process, you can also heal personal and collective wounds.
But, unhealed wounds of the past can interfere with how you show up in your art and with your audience, and with your creative career as a whole.
With or without awareness, your art is infused with all who you are, including the trauma that you might still be holding on to.
Unresolved trauma usually finds its way into your art.
Those unhealed parts of yourself long to be seen, validated, and released. And, although there is healing through art, there are many artists who live and struggle with unhealed trauma.
See more in her article Is Unhealed Emotional Trauma Impacting Your Creativity...EMDR Can Help.
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Related Substack posts:
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Also see video playlist: Trauma Healing / The Creative Mind Videos - Programs and information from physicians, psychologists and others on understanding and healing from traumatic experiences.
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