Our Services
Lotus is pleased to offer several different treatment options. Together with your therapist, you will determine which treatment option(s) will be the most effective at helping you achieve your therapy goals. Below is a brief description of each of our offerings. As research shows, these treatment options have often proven to be more successful than talk therapy alone and break throughs may occur more quickly than with traditional talk therapy.
EMDR.
Lotus is pleased to offer Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. EMDR was developed by Francine Shapiro in the 1980’s and since that time has been extensively researched and successfully utilized by trained therapists world-wide, proving it to be an effective treatment for trauma. Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference (See Resource Tab for further information).
EMDR is based on the premise that the brain’s information processing system has the capability to heal from even the most traumatic events. But if the system is blocked by an overwhelming event, either due to the severity of that experience or the prolonged exposure of a lesser experience over time, the natural healing process may not be able to complete on its own and suffering continues.
EMDR targets a specific aspect of the client’s stuck experience, whether that is a belief, image, or somatic experience, and using either eye-movement, sound, or sensation, bi-lateral activity is activated in the brain. Practically, this occurs by moving the eyes back and forth from right to left, or hearing sounds in alternating ears, or feeling a tapping sensation on the right side and then the left side of the body. The bilateral brain activity helps process the event, so that the mind and body can fully resolve the experience and realize it is over. When this happens, the memory is encoded with long-term memory, we drop the emotional charge and cognitive belief associated with the memory, and the survival response is released from the body.
Brainspotting (BSP).
BSP was discovered in 2003 by David Grand, who was then a nationally known therapist and trainer in the field of EMDR. While using EMDR to work with trauma survivors of the 9/11 World Trade Center attack and Hurricane Katrina, Dr. Grand discovered that that ‘where you look affects how you feel’ and that eye positions correlate with unconscious, emotional experiences. By moving your eyes to certain positions, you can bypass conscious thinking (rational brain) and tap into unprocessed trauma held deeply in your emotional brain and body. You can also use this therapy to improve performance and tap into creativity, which was Dr.Grand’s area of expertise as an EMDR practitioner.
During BSP sessions, your therapist will walk you through a process to help you locate brain spots in order to gain access to the blockages in your emotional brain and body so that experiences can be fully processed, resolved, and released. There are a range of techniques utilized, but this always remains a collaborative process between the client and therapist.
Somatic Experiencing.
Somatic Experiencing was developed by Dr. Peter Levine, who was originally inspired by the animal nervous system when he realized that animals are constantly under threat of death yet show no symptoms of trauma. What he discovered was that trauma has to do with the third survival response to perceived life threat, which is freeze. When fight and flight are not options, as is often the case in childhood, we freeze and immobilize, like “playing dead.” This makes us less of a target and allows us to conserve energy until another survival strategy can be utilized. However, this reaction is time-sensitive, in other words, it needs to run its course, and the massive energy that was prepared for fight or flight must get discharged. If it does not and the immobility phase doesn’t complete, then that charge stays trapped, and, from the body’s perspective, it is still under threat. SE treatment works to turn off the alarm of threat and release this stored energy that causes severe dysregulation and dissociation.
In this modality, the story of what happened takes a backseat to exploring physical sensations and discovering the location and shape of the imprints of past trauma on the body. Before diving in, in SE we build up internal resources to manage the physical sensations and emotions which created the overwhelm at the time of the trauma. Once clients can tolerate being aware of their trauma-based experiences, the SE method will utilize pendulation. During pendulation, clients will gently be moving in and out of accessing uncomfortable trauma experiences, in order to release the unresolved threat response from the body at a tolerable pace.
Internal Family Systems.
Lotus therapists also use Internal Family Systems (IFS) with their clients. IFS is an approach to psychotherapy that identifies and addresses multiple sub-personalities or families within each person’s mental system. These sub-personalities consist of wounded parts, painful emotions, and parts that try to control and protect the person from the pain of the wounded parts. IFS is talk therapy in which the client will work with a therapist to identify and understand the specific sub-personalities or families that make up the client’s internal mental system. IFS therapy is routinely used to treat individuals, couples, and families.