EMDR

EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a psychotherapy treatment that helps people heal from the emotional distress caused by traumatic memories. During EMDR therapy, you are guided through a process that involves focusing on the traumatic memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation, often in the form of eye movements or Stephanie’s preferred method is tapping using your own hands or tappers made specifically for use with EMDR treatment. The process of bilateral stimulation can help your brain process and resolve the traumatic memory, reducing its emotional impact and allowing you to move forward

Stephanie is trained in AF-EMDR. Attachment-Focused EMDR (AF-EMDR) is a specialized form of EMDR therapy that focuses on healing early attachment wounds. It combines traditional EMDR techniques with attachment theory principles to address the impact of childhood trauma and neglect on an individual's emotional development and relationships. AF-EMDR helps individuals process unresolved traumatic memories and develop healthier attachment patterns, leading to improved emotional regulation, self-esteem, and interpersonal relationships.

Stephanie uses AF-EMDR in her work with eating disorders. EMDR therapy has been found to be highly effective in treating eating disorders. Many individuals with eating disorders have experienced traumatic events in their past, and these unresolved traumas can contribute to the development and maintenance of disordered eating patterns. EMDR therapy helps process these traumatic memories, reducing their emotional impact and allowing individuals to develop healthier coping mechanisms. By addressing the underlying emotional and psychological factors contributing to eating disorders, EMDR can help individuals break free from their restrictive or compulsive eating behaviors and develop a more positive relationship with food and their bodies.

Stephanie also uses EMDR to help the athletes she works with achieve greter potential by working on their fears and increasing their self beliefs.

Some of the signs to look for in athletes who are struggling with disordered eating:

  • Overtraining

  • Obsessive rituals around food

  • Rigidity in food intake (quantity, time, rules)

  • Continuing to train or crossgrain when injured

  • recurrent injuries

  • Obsessing about training data, details, schedules,

  • Adding workouts to training schedule

  • Irritable moods

About Over Exercising

While overexercising isn’t considered an eating disorder itself it can become a compulsion that is similar to patterns of bulimia. Over exercising isn’t always linked to an eating disorder, but it is usually connected to how one feels about their body overall. Sometimes over exercise can be hard to identify as it is normalized and praised in our society. Some key signs to look for are:

  • Linking food to exercise

  • The “earn it or burn it” mentality.

  • Prioritizing exercise over other areas of life to the detriment of those other areas

  • The need to exercise taking away from ones ability to tolerate their emotions

  • Using exercise as their only emotional outlet

  • Rigid ideas about exercise and food

  • Multiple workouts in one day when not competing in athletic events or multi-sport events.

Are you ready to work on changing your relationship to food, your body, and your sport?