As I sit across from my clients, whether it be in person or via telehealth, the heaviness of the burdens my clients carry becomes all too clear.
Many clients report feeling simply exhausted by the struggle to loosen themselves from their trauma, depression, fear of abandonment, and so on. And for that single hour, they allow themselves, often hesitantly, to be present with the burdens and wounds that they’ve perhaps worked so hard to avoid.
Involved in this struggle, though, is coming to terms with oneself after having experienced something traumatic or painful. For those of us who continue to feel trapped in the past, for fear of enduring something traumatic again, it can often be difficult to buy into more adaptive beliefs about self. While many clients can logically say they are good enough, lovable, capable, safe in this present moment, etc., their emotional side doesn’t always feel that way. On the one hand we logically know that trauma exists in the past, and yet on the other hand it often doesn’t always feel that way.
An eagerness, and sometimes desperation, to move forward while also feeling stuck in the past is an all too real issue for many. In Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, this is what we call a “blocking belief.”…