ACT Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps you relate differently the thoughts and feelings that are creating distress, which relieves the distress.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people accept their thoughts and feelings rather than trying to control them which leads to a more fulfilling and productive life.
You may be feeling upset with yourself, amped up and tense. Or maybe you feel numb, frozen and unable to focus at work or home. Perhaps you are judging yourself for feeling depressed or anxious, thinking you have a pretty good life and things are “fine.” Maybe you can’t understand why you feel this way and feel like your emotions aren’t matching your current experience.
Or maybe things aren’t fine right now. Your partner says you’re acting angry, being moody or distant or spending too much time at work or on your xbox.
Clients often come to me confused or overwhelmed with their feelings about experiences that they couldn’t control. As we explore these feelings, we discover that we often have less control over our thoughts and feelings than we often believe. Learning to let go of our need for control creates greater psychological flexibility and improved capacity for coping with stressors.
ACT is a process I use to help clients accept their thoughts and feelings rather than trying to control them, because trying to control something that we cannot control creates psychological distress.
ACT probably sounds really touchy feely and many people I work with hesitate to start because they aren’t into that.
But let’s face it- the tools you’re using now aren’t working. Not embracing the full range of human emotions is like boxing with one arm tied behind your back.
Learning what your feelings actually are and why they matter empowers you to stay on your feet even when life throws you a left hook.
ACT can enhance your ability to create the life you really want, accomplish your goals, and feel good about how you’re living your life.
You may start feeling better as soon as the first session, as you gain tools to accept what you’re feeling right now without trying to change it.
It’s ok to feel what you’re feeling.
The range of emotions that you’re feeling is totally normal and totally human.
How Can Childhood Trauma Affect Parenting?
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Childhood trauma often involves disrupted attachment with caregivers, which feeds into ambivalence about becoming someone else’s care giver.
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It’s hard to give what we didn’t receive.
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It can be challenging to connect to your child if you didn’t receive true connection.
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You may feel numb or detached.
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You may often feel angry and you don’t know why.
After EMDR Clients Report Feeling:
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Less confused
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More at peace
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Like things are more resolved
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Less easily angry
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Able to focus
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Able to connect with their kids
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Better equipped to handle stress
If I say I experienced childhood trauma, does that mean my parents failed?
You may be wondering if you say you experienced childhood trauma does that mean your parents were bad people or did a bad job parenting? You may feel conflicted about your personal identity, as if something inside is asking, “Am I someone’s child or someone’s parent?”
The short answer is that it’s ok to love your parents and believe they did their best, and also accept that they didn’t know what they didn’t know and something was missing from your childhood.
They were likely just raising you the way they were raised, or maybe they did even better than their parents did! Either way, you can create a legacy of even better parenting for your children. You can offer them a more attuned, connected, and peaceful childhood than you had.
The longer answer is that your personal process through these feelings may take some time and some work. EMDR can help smooth that process by allowing you to integrate your memories so they feel less painful and easier to compartmentalize.
What Causes Trauma?
Trauma can happen during childhood experiences that failed to meet our most core needs for love, emotional connection or safety. Trauma can also be caused by a one-time experience that overwhelmed your nervous system’s ability to reregulate in the moment, such as an accident, or a violent act against you or someone you know.
At Shapiro Psych, we help clients primarily with childhood trauma that affected their development
What is EMDR? How does it work?
EMDR uses the same process your brain uses during sleep to process experiences, but sometimes those experiences are too big and get stuck. EMDR helps your brain organize this natural processing in a guided, directed way, so your painful experiences become integrated into your life so they feel like distant memories not current threats.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (side to side) to activate multiple areas of your brain, because neurons that fire together wire together, and that’s how your traumatic experiences become integrated.
Trauma can happen during childhood experiences that failed to meet our most core needs for love, emotional connection or safety. Trauma can also be caused by a one-time experience that overwhelmed your nervous system’s ability to reregulate in the moment, such as an accident, or a violent act against you or someone you know.
At Shapiro Psych, we help clients primarily with childhood trauma that affected their development
What is EMDR? How does it work?
EMDR uses the same process your brain uses during sleep to process experiences, but sometimes those experiences are too big and get stuck. EMDR helps your brain organize this natural processing in a guided, directed way, so your painful experiences become integrated into your life so they feel like distant memories not current threats.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (side to side) to activate multiple areas of your brain, because neurons that fire together wire together, and that’s how your traumatic experiences become integrated.
Why is EMDR effective?
EMDR is a clinically tested protocol, backed by research that shows that it is an effective way to treat psychological problems, trauma, stuck memories, and unresolved feelings around things that happened that we may not even remember.
Can EMDR Be Done Virtually?
Studies have shown that EMDR is just as effective virtually as in person. Your therapist may ask you to tap alternately on each side of your body or use a visual tool that you can track with your eyes back and forth across the screen.
You don’t have to carry the weight of past experiences alone. EMDR therapy can help your brain process what happened so you can move forward feeling calmer, clearer, and more connected to your life and relationships.
If you're ready to take the next step, schedule a free consultation to see if EMDR therapy is the right fit for you.
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