EMDR Performance Enhancement Help — for an Educator-Therapist

By Anonymous

A Primary Care Physician Encourages an EMDR Therapist-Educator

I had an interesting experience once while trying to educate my primary care physician about EMDR.He responded with enthusiasm and suggested I contact his hospital’s Grand Rounds provider so I could speak to the doctors there.  When I did, the physician in charge said, “We don’t want to listen to social workers.”  I said, “Would it help if I co-presented with a PhD psychologist?”  He responded, “We don’t want to listen to PhDs.”  I was in such a state of shock that I just said, “Oh.” and found some polite way to hang up quickly.

I’d just experienced what we call a “small t” trauma. We can all “small-t-trauma” others without even knowing it or giving it a second thought. 

Kaiser ACES Study

For a few years I gave up on educating physicians until this year, when I studied the Kaiser ACES Study (see separate article) and a 2010 survey of Family Practice physicians. I realized that it is essential for doctors to learn about trauma, how to screen for trauma, and how to talk to patients about it and that many physicians now recognize this importance.  And through one study I learned 50% of family practice physicians would like to receive training on this.

I returned to my Certified EMDR Therapist for 1 Session

So, in preparation for the course for physicians and other health care providers, I realized that old negative comment about social workers and psychologists was blocking my ability to prepare the class confidently.  I was feeling “shaky.” I sought EMDR therapy with a Certified EMDR therapist who has worked with me before, so we didn’t need to do the history-taking stage, or prepare me for the work.   We could just assess the aspects of this one memory and proceed into the desensitization phase of EMDR.

60 minutes of EMDR neutralized the memory

Just 60 minutes of EMDR therapy completely desensitized that memory.  I realized, “The doctor I spoke with assumed that he was far more intelligent than I.  Obviously, in his specialties, he has more knowledge.  But I am clearly more socially intelligent than he is when it comes to communication skills, and have much more scientific knowledge about the psychological treatment of trauma.  This is exactly the kind of knowledge and communication skills physicians need to help trauma survivors.  I’m sure many physicians and complementary health care providers have the intelligence to recognize that.”

Seek EMDR Therapy when you need Performance Enhancement

I highly recommend EMDR for any circumstance in which one bad experience is impacting your ability to be your best.  EMDR with this purpose is called Performance Enhancement work. It often includes processing one or more relevant traumas (in this case, we call it a small “t” trauma because it was not “life and death”).  By the end of the session, I was visualizing myself confidently presenting the course to physicians and feeling great when it was over. We installed this vision with EMDR’s gentle bilateral stimulation of my brain.  

I feel solid and capable!  Yahoo! Glory Hallelujah!