EMDR Therapy
Providing Psychotherapy, Counselling, and EMDR therapy services for trauma, anxiety, and other negative memories in person at our office in Burlington and virtually online across Ontario.
Your past continues to influence your present and it's exhausting to no end trying to find strategies or people who understand.
Sometimes, specific memories can unexpectedly resurface, causing you to feel like you’re being controlled and causing you to revisit old patterns of avoidance, poor coping mechanisms, self-doubt, and criticism.
Despite your efforts to heal and move forward in your life from these experiences, these memories continue to derail your progress and leave you feeling vulnerable, triggered (again), and unsure of yourself.
Though you’ve been working hard to move past these memories and create the life you want, they still find a way of catching you off guard and creating surges of feeling overwhelmed, on edge, and avoidant, making it incredibly difficult to find the strength and will to engage in your work, your relationships, or the simple things that used to bring you joy.
You've tried talk therapy and nothing seems to help.
EMDR Therapy with our team at Christina Janiga Psychotherapy helps you:
- Understand the effects that trauma has on the brain and gain insight into the ways your circumstances have impacted you.
- From a neurodiversity-affirming perspective you will connect with your trauma through bilateral stimulation (eye movements, sound, or tapping) to process events that are difficult to talk about.
- You will find relief from physical responses to current daily triggers and may even forget that certain situations/objects/places were triggering to begin with.
- You will remove the stuck points of the trauma and start to feel, think, and experience life in a normal way again - much like you did before.
- You will see the type of results you had hoped to achieve from traditional talk therapy much more quickly.
Who benefits most from EMDR therapy?
EMDR is a therapy method that is intended to help individuals who are ready to address and work through their past traumatic experiences. By using EMDR, individuals can work through the distressing memories, release the feelings of fear, guilt, and shame, and shift the underlying negative beliefs that are preventing them from functioning normally in their daily lives into more positive, adaptive beliefs that make them carry on with life with a recovered sense of confidence, purpose, and joy.
You will benefit from EMDR therapy if:
You are interested in learning the ways trauma has affected your brain and nervous system.
You are ready to tackle and process past events that have been causing difficulties in your life, in order to move forward and be in control of your present and future rather than being controlled by your past.
You recognize that past situations (whether traumatic or not) are keeping you stuck and you’re ready to move forward from them.
You realize in addition to negative memories, the constant triggers and avoidance keeps you from moving forward in life.
You are ready to find a way to regulate your emotions so that you feel more stable and grounded in the life you want.
There are certain situations where you might not be ready for EMDR therapy sessions with our psychotherapists at Christina Janiga Psychotherapy. These situations include, but are not limited to:
Instances of severe mental illness
Ongoing difficulties with substance abuse – we do utilize EMDR based protocols for substance use and urges but recommend additional supports for substance abuse.
If you are currently experiencing a severe mental illness or struggling with substance abuse, we recommend you seek outpatient services at a local program within your community. Please see our Resources Page for links to local supports within the Burlington, Halton Region, and across Ontario.
What does an EMDR Therapy sessions look like?
EMDR or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing is a form of trauma therapy that helps unstick the negative memories from painful past experiences by accessing the root of the pain. EMDR is an 8 phase treatment where bilateral stimulation either in the form of eye movements, auditory sounds/music, or tapping are used to access the deep part of your brain that has locked the specific memories hostage. It’s this part of the brain that when “stimulated” by daily life triggers activates your nervous response and makes you feel like you’re reliving the trauma or driving a response in you that you cannot control.
Guided by your therapist through the EMDR techniques these memories are targeted and emotional processing of these events begin shifting into different perspectives and insights with a release and relief of the accompanying emotions.
We call these new insights and release of emotions adaptive shifts – and it feels so much better than the previous maladaptive ones that past old habits of coping don’t seem to be needed anymore.
We understand that seeking help for anything trauma related can be intimidating, and we are here to make the process as easy and comfortable as possible for you.
Our team at Christina Janiga Psychotherapy has extensive experience in helping people overcome painful past experiences and find relief from negative memories and physical responses.
Our therapists are warm, compassionate, and non-judgmental, and we are committed to creating a safe and supportive environment for you to explore your past painful experiences.
If you are ready to take the first step towards healing from your past and living a more purposeful and joyful present life, we invite you to contact us to schedule an appointment.
YOUR NEXT STEPS
Our team at Christina Janiga Psychotherapy have completed EMDRIA approved EMDR training (some are even certified) and we understand the difference between talk type therapy and EMDR therapy. We will utilize EMDR therapy for those that meet the readiness to help you heal from your past and reclaim your joy in daily life. Together, you and your therapist will set goals to reprocess your negative memories, release the difficult emotions, and find the adaptive shifts you’ve been wanting for a long time
Book a free 15 minuted consultation call.
If you are interested in seeking therapy to help you work through these past memories, we encourage you to reach out to us for a free 15-minute consultation. During the consultation, we will answer any questions you have about our practice and our psychotherapists, and help you determine if we are the right fit for you. We believe that feeling comfortable with your therapist is essential for a successful therapeutic relationship.
Invest in your healing.
Investing in yourself is an important step towards finding the happiness and fulfillment you deserve. By seeking therapy and working with a trained EMDR professional, you can get to the root of the problems you are experiencing and find solutions that are tailored to your unique needs and goals. Together, you and your therapist will work on healing old wounds and developing healthy coping strategies to help you move forward in a way that feels authentic and fulfilling.
First EMDR Intake Session
During this initial 90 minute session, you will meet with your therapist to define the psychotherapy relationship and discuss the details of informed consent.
Your therapist will gather information about you and your biological, psychological, and social history and how this is impacting your current situation. Together you will define the goals you have going forward.
For EMDR your therapist will also discuss options for weekly ongoing therapy or EMDR intensive therapy (more information provided below).
Fees vary between therapists.
Ongoing Therapy
Commit to at least to 4 weekly 50 to 90-minute sessions (either in person at our Burlington office or virtually online across Ontario).
We find that clients who cannot commit to at least 4 weekly sessions tend to have more difficulty in establishing a relationship with their therapist and often sessions consist of recapping the previous weeks instead of focusing on forward movement and their treatment goals. With EMDR we also find that adjusting the time to 90 minute sessions allows the appropriate time for processing.
Fees vary between therapists.
Commit to at least 3-9 sessions in 1 to 2 weeks. These psychotherapy sessions are extended to anywhere between 90 minutes to 3 hours each (either in person at our Burlington office or virtually online across Ontario).
Once we have confirmed that you’re a good candidate for EMDR Intensive therapy we will provide you a specialized workbook to help prepare you towards your EMDR intensive sessions. Sessions will be booked during your 90 minute intake.
Learn more about EMDR intensives.
Fees vary between therapists.
More about Christina Janiga Psychotherapy
We are a team of skilled registered psychotherapists with a goal is to help you achieve deep and lasting change by getting to the root of your struggles with your trauma, PTSD symptoms, or recurring negative memories.
We believe in the power of therapy to help people overcome challenges and live fulfilling lives. Regardless of the cause, trauma, flashbacks, nightmares, and relentless physical responses to triggers can be debilitating with overwhelming fears that consume your thoughts, get in the way of your relationships, and interfere with your daily life.
No matter how these negative memories are showing up in your life, our Christina Janiga Psychotherapy team of EMDR trained therapists can provide you with the safe and supportive space you need to begin to explore your thoughts, symptoms, and feelings to work towards the goal of finding lasting relief from your painful past experiences.
Secure Services
Christina Janiga and associated employees of Christina Janiga Psychotherapy offer both in person and virtual psychotherapy and couselling sessions through secure, Canada-based software called JaneVideo. JaneVideo are secure and encrypted online video platforms that meet all of Canada’s privacy requirements and laws.
For more information, please see the privacy policies of Jane.