It is aptly said that being a parent is one of the hardest things we do as human beings. Not only are we trying to meet the constant needs of our children’s physical, intellectual and emotional well-being, but also manage the stress of jobs, finances, household and other familial demands. And, if we have experienced trauma or adversity earlier in our lives, our parent job can be even more challenging when our children trigger our “stress response” system (fight/flight/freeze), activating traumatic memory networks in ourselves. If you’ve ever observed yourself react in a way that was “out of proportion” to the situation, you know what I mean. Often, we wind up feeling like we are a bad parent or we think we have a bad child when neither is true- we are just people who have experienced adversity. Through years of doing this work, I have learned these triggers can be invitations for self-exploration, healing and growth.

In my work with families, sometimes EMDR therapy may be recommended for both the child as well as the parent. A parent may be highly traumatized by living through the trauma of the child; or, because of the parents' own adverse childhood experiences, they can have emotional reactions to their child that impact the child's psychological development. EMDR helps process these traumatic memories- sorting them out and eliminating the emotional charge they evoke which allows parents to respond from a place of calm, compassion, and presence. This leads to a strong, healthy attachment between parent and child.

At some point in our lives, we all need help, and there are many ways to find solutions to our parenting challenges. EMDR is by far one of the most useful tools I have found to help people heal. My belief comes not only from the perspective of a clinician, but as someone who has been an EMDR client as well.

Contact me today for a free 20-minute phone consultation to determine if EMDR might help you feel less stressed and more at ease with it comes to the challenges of parenting.