Grief hurts. And though we often want to push away or bury the pain of loss, processing grief fully is best for us and our relationships in the long run.
Typically, grief triggers a variety of emotions such as, denial, sorrow, or depression.
However, depending on the situation, we may also feel shock, anger, guilt, or even relief. Thus, grief not only hurts, but it’s often complex and hard to resolve as well. In fact, it can become so painful or distressing that conditions called complicated grief or traumatic grief can occur.
Complicated grief can develop when loss or death is unexpected. Maybe, the loss occurs among unresolved issues. Possibly, your grief is hidden due to a socially unacceptable situation. Or perhaps it happened under particularly tense circumstance.
Traumatic grief can arise from exposure to a traumatic and life-altering event surrounding the loss. If so, your grief may be compounded by flashbacks and re-experiencing the event. It can cause attempts to avoid reminders, emotional detachment, anger or deep denial. In addition, traumatic grief can cause an inability to see much of a future ahead is also common.
So, if your grief is causing suffering of any type, what can you do? In short, you cope and you recover. But when you are hurting so badly, it’s best to do so with support. That’s where EMDR therapy grief and loss comes in.
Grief is already filled with difficult emotions and memories, as well as anxiety about the future. Fortunately, EMDR therapy is well-suited to relieve without exacerbating or prolonging your pain.
Let’s take a look at 4 ways EMDR supports grief relief:
EMDR Therapy encourages release of “locked-in" grief.
Grief is a natural and necessary process. It is not a place to avoid or a place to live. Therapy.
EMDR therapy allows the memories and circumstances to remain with you but moves you through them with less pain and negative impact. Simply put, EMDR unlocks and frees your thinking. Regardless of how or when the loss occurred, this therapist-led approach is customized and compassionate. It hones in on the stuck places in your mind and addresses your mental and emotional needs specifically.
2. It supports your ability to cope and process the hurt.
The necessary relationship you establish with your therapist creates a safe, comfortable therapeutic environment for dealing with your grief. Luckily, you will always have a voice in the process and never be forced to get over your grief before you are ready.
Coping via relaxation exercises, meditation practices, or routine journaling may be suggested as needed. Work with your therapist will reveal that acknowledging and processing grief is possible. All done without persistent verbal re-experiencing and re-traumatizing.
EMDR research tells us that bilateral stimulation of the brain allows each hemisphere to heal and process more thoroughly and capably. Side to side eye movements, along with tapping motions or audio tones, can assist management of overwhelming memories, emotions, and triggers. Soon, intrusive thoughts are recognized, addressed, and processed painlessly. Maladaptive coping declines and grief becomes more meaningful, productive, and progressive.
3. It restores the healing relationship between body and mind.
A helpful aspect of EMDR is its way of reminding the body and mind to work together for the sake of recovery. In sessions, you and your therapist will employ your eyes, ears, and limbs to address intrusive thoughts and difficult memories. Left-right brain stimulation, through eye tracking, hand- tapping or audio tones in headphones will help you track and resolve your mental activity as it occurs.
Your emotions are no longer uncontrolled and overwhelming. As well as, your thoughts are not intrusive and anxious. Physical reaction is less disruptive. EMDR simply helps you follow them and feel less controlled by pain, tension, or frustration mentally or physically.
Working together, your mind and body heal the existing negativity, soothe the internal disconnect, and you learn to extend yourself more patience and compassion. Overall, distress and discomfort fade and your grief is productively contained.
4. EMDR Therapy promotes your ability to progress intentionally and optimally.
EMDR is a gentle but highly effective path toward clarity and a new vision for your life after a significant loss. This therapy for grief gives you guidance, tools for measurable change, and a sense of empowerment.
All in all, you come to realize that you can grieve and still move on without guilt or shame, or debilitating sorrow. This frees you up to see and create more meaning in the grieving process.
Healing becomes something actionable and less something you feel is out of reach.
Moving forward…
If you are ready to consider EMDR grief therapy, we would like to help. Please contact us soon. Let’s work through your loss together and begin looking toward your future again. We look forward to hearing from you.
Click here to learn more about EMDR Therapy. Serving Boulder, Longmont, Denver.
For your other needs, you can count on April Lyons Psychotherapy Group, to help you heal and grow through EMDR therapy, somatic therapy, trauma therapy, and PTSD treatment – because we believe in your strength and potential for recovery.
