EMDR, Trauma, and Addiction
EMDR, Trauma and Addiction is a guide created for psychotherapy practitioners to assist them in navigating the treatment of patients suffering from Trauma and Addiction using EMDR.
By Dr. Kathy Shafer As a therapist with extensive training in EMDR, Brainspotting, addiction recovery, and yoga therapy, I’ve seen firsthand how many of the traditional therapeutic approaches, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), can sometimes miss the pivotal healing moment when it comes to help controlling reactive emotions, deeply held resentments, or resolving trauma. While CBT has its merits and […]
By Dr. Kathy Shafer
As a therapist with extensive training in EMDR, Brainspotting, addiction recovery, and yoga therapy, I’ve seen firsthand how many of the traditional therapeutic approaches, like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), can sometimes miss the pivotal healing moment when it comes to help controlling reactive emotions, deeply held resentments, or resolving trauma. While CBT has its merits and can be a helpful tool in managing symptoms like anxiety, depression, or addictive behaviors, it may not go far enough to address the root causes of many of these issues.
The traditional CBT approach focuses on changing thought patterns, strong beliefs held, resulting in reactive behaviors, which is absolutely important for short-term relief. But here’s what’s missed: trauma, emotional pain, and even anxiety often reside in parts of the brain and body that CBT can’t reach. The midbrain, brainstem, and limbic system (which govern our survival instincts, emotions, and responses to stress) hold onto trauma, and these areas aren’t easily accessed or healed through talking alone. That’s where EMDR, Brainspotting, and Yoga Nidra come in as critical adjunct therapies to truly deepen the healing process.
EMDR: The Past is Always Present
The brain and the body are always adjusting to what is going on internally (perception) and externally (environment). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing known as EMDR is an integrative psychotherapy model was developed by Francine Shapiro in 1987, who discovered this natural healing and coping process could successfully treat persons diagnosed with PTSD. Since then, the professional organization EMDRIA was organized to maintain standards of practice for licensed clinicians who completed training and certified in EMDR, and who have found EMDR to effectively treat a wide range of mental health problems. The Journal of EMDR Practice and Research is a peer reviewed publication that is designed to educate clinicians on how to integrate and apply EMDR with diverse populations.
The Missing Link: Accessing the Deep Brain with Brainspotting
When we experience trauma, it doesn’t just affect our thoughts—it alters the way our brain processes and stores memories, sensations, and emotions. This is where Brainspotting shines. Developed by Dr. David Grand, Brainspotting is a neurobiological, trauma-focused therapy that targets specific areas of the brain where unresolved trauma is stored.
Unlike traditional therapies like CBT that stay on the surface, Brainspotting helps clients access the deep, non-verbal parts of the brain, facilitating the release of trauma from areas like the amygdala and brainstem. By focusing on “brain spots”—specific eye positions that are linked to distressing memories or feelings—this method helps process and release trauma on a much deeper level. It’s a highly effective way to resolve long-standing emotional pain and trauma that other therapies, like CBT, often miss.
This is why I firmly believe that Brainspotting is an essential adjunct to CBT. CBT may help reframe thoughts and challenge distorted thinking, but it doesn’t address the deep, emotional residues of trauma or help the brain process stored memories. Brainspotting does that in a way that allows clients to heal on a cellular, neurological level.
Yoga Nidra: Restoring Balance and Healing the Nervous System
In addition to EMDR and Brainspotting, another tool I use with clients to enhance their healing process is Yoga Nidra—a deeply relaxing, guided meditation practice that induces a state of conscious relaxation. Yoga Nidra is unique because it works directly with the nervous system to release stored tension, stress, and trauma.
When people experience trauma, it doesn’t just affect their thoughts or emotions—it creates a profound impact on the body. The body often becomes a storehouse for unprocessed emotions, stress, and tension. Yoga Nidra offers a way to reset the nervous system and bring the body back into balance. The practice guides you into a deep state of relaxation, where the body can let go of physical and emotional blocks that are holding you back. This is important because trauma is often stored in the body in ways that can’t be reached through talk therapy alone.
As Dr. Kamini Desai, a leading expert in Yoga Nidra and author of Yoga Nidra: The Art of Transformational Sleep (2017), wisely says: “Yoga Nidra is a healing state of consciousness that allows the body to reset and return to its natural state of balance. It’s an amazing tool for healing the nervous system, releasing emotional and physical blocks.”
This is why I integrate Yoga Nidra into my work, particularly with clients who are working through trauma, stress, or chronic anxiety. It’s the perfect complement to CBT, helping to reset the nervous system and promote deep relaxation and healing. By combining Yoga Nidra with Brainspotting, clients are able to release trauma at both the neurological and somatic levels, giving them a much more well-rounded approach to healing.
The Synergy: CBT + EMDR + Brainspotting + Yoga Nidra
So, why do I recommend combining CBT with Brainspotting and Yoga Nidra? Because CBT alone doesn’t go deep enough. It can help shift negative thinking patterns and provide coping skills for managing stress or anxiety, but it often misses the deeper, more profound emotional healing that Brainspotting and Yoga Nidra provide.
By combining these modalities, we can address both the mind and body. CBT helps shift thinking patterns and behaviors. EMDR and Brainspotting access the deeper regions of the brain to release stored trauma, while Yoga Nidra accesses memories and restores the nervous system, promoting emotional balance, while reclining and at rest. This holistic approach is what creates lasting change—healing not just at the mental level, but at the emotional, physiological, and neurological levels as well.
The Bottom Line
If you’ve been stuck in the same cycles of anxiety, depression, or trauma, it may be time to explore more than just traditional therapy. While CBT can be a great starting point for managing symptoms, EMDR, Brainspotting and Yoga Nidra offer deeper layers of healing that address the body and brain, creating lasting transformation.
As someone who works with teens, adults, couples, and families impacted by trauma, I’ve seen the power of combining these therapies to create profound shifts in clients. Whether it’s helping someone recover from a crisis or simply manage stress, integrating EMDR, Brainspotting, and Yoga Nidra with CBT can truly take your healing to the next level.
CBT may be part of the foundation, but to truly heal, you may need the depth and integration that EMDR, Brainspotting, and Yoga Nidra provide to help you feel calmer inside.
HERE, SHIFT HAPPENS.
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EMDR, Trauma and Addiction is a guide created for psychotherapy practitioners to assist them in navigating the treatment of patients suffering from Trauma and Addiction using EMDR.
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