EMDR Therapy

EMDR is truly my favorite. It’s a therapy that helps us access how memory and trauma is stored in the nervous system.

Your body/mind creates meaning out of experiences. That meeting is stored, via your nervous system, in order to keep you safe going forward. The tough thing is that those triggers can become catalyst for things that end up no longer serving you, and maybe even holding you back. EMDR is a way to help your body, not just your mind, reprocess these narratives. Usually, it can move to a place to keep what it needs and let go of what no longer serves it (which can be really helpful if you have childhood trauma - because you will never be as helpless as you once were as a child, now that you’re an autonomous adult - your body forgets that sometimes).

It’s really, really neat and I love using it with my clients. Some areas I like to focus on with EMDR as a medium:

•Healing childhood wounds and gaining empowerment over how it still affects you

•Quieting and soothing your critical inner voice

•Overcoming hurtful beliefs about your lovability or worth

•Healing and changing your relationship to your body and food

•Support through postpartum transitions and experiences

•Unpacking & exploring your value and belief system

PS— if you work with me in person, there’s a good chance we’re going to sit on cozy @samaya meditation cushions during EMDR processing. I believe that a nurturing environment innately fosters healing. ✨

👇 Tap on the tag “emdrtherapy” below to read other posts and blogs of mine regarding EMDR.

Out of Office

Hi KRTW Community:

I will be out of office from July 3rd until July 11th; during this time I will be completely without access to service.

My husband and I make it a priority to take an extended trip into the wilderness once a year. It is so good for my soul to have this trip to look forward to. I have to be intentional about training my body for it, which really motivates a lifestyle that is good for my mental health. And being in the wilderness itself is a really special experience. It's free of to do lists, deadlines, things to remember -- I know we can all relate to feeling inundated with those things. It's so important and refreshing to get a break from it, whatever way you can that excites you and lights you up. It helps me to recenter; reconnect with myself. And in the mean time, I get a lot of quality time with my husband as we have plenty of time to just talk. (Even though we do stink a lot.)

If you need to make any changes to your appointments upcoming, please remember you can do so through the client portal: https://kelseyriddlelmft.clientsecure.me and using your email to login as 'Existing Client'.

If you should have any mental health or behavioral crisis, please either call 911 or contact your nearest crisis resource, which can be found at http://crisissolutionsnc.org/.

I will return all messages within 24 hours when I'm back on July 12th morning. And I'll look forward to reconnecting with you when I see you next. I am so glad to be part of your life, and I appreciate you understanding my need for rest -- and I hope you listen to and prioritize your own needs as well.

Gentle reminder: I have openings for July 21st and 22nd (my last week in office in Arizona). If you would like to meet with me in person before I go, you have the option to switch to an opening on one of those days.

Thinking of you-

With gratitude,

Kelsey

If I'm not a good fit..

If you’re in Arizona and I’m not a good fit for some reason, here are the practices I refer to most. Some have specific colleagues, others have options I have experience with. I really only like to recommend people I know and have worked with, or with practices where I know and trust the supervisors/owners to also recommend those under them. 

Most of these do couple and individual therapy, in person and or Telehealth, many offer EMDR and other empirically supported models. All use an attament lens!

Please feel free to share this list with your friends! It’s so important to find the right fit, and there are so many great therapists and resources out there.

There are many more organizations and practices and colleagues that I refer to, depending on the case and treatment needed. This list is who I will typically refer to if a client wants to work with someone similar to my background, training, and attachment focus.

(Also so fun — 5 on the list (including me) are owned by, or have therapists working there, who used to work and train at Therapy with Heart (where I previously worked. I texted Rachel, who owns Therapy with Heart yesterday, to share that it was “like a Therapy with Heart family tree”.