Do you see clients who want to do really well at something. It could be a job interview. How they perform in a meeting. Achieving a sporting goal. Being able to publish things on social media? But somehow it feels unachievable, undoable, not possible? As EMDR therapists, we can help our clients using EMDR to help enhance their performance.
I can remember being a newly qualified Psychologist and being fearful of talking in meetings, it would hold me back, I knew I had things to say but I was not brave enough to say. Well that was until I attended my EMDR training and started to work on using EMDR to work with current anxieties. Future templates can be applied to so many situations. During this I was able to identify what the blocks were and understand more about what I was afraid of. I then developed some internal resources and was able to cope much better in meetings, get my voice heard and eventually I would lead meetings and be able to do presentations within them.
This is fascinating, you see EMDR is not just about working with your past trauma. It can also help unhook from fears and thoughts that hold us back. We want our clients to live their best possible life. Ok so maybe my work about performing better in meetings is not quite what you might expect in living your best possible life but you get my point?!!
So how can EMDR informed coaching help?
1. Identify the blocks
Sometimes it can feel that clients can’t see what the blocks are. Clients might often know they are struck with meetings, getting past certain points, interviews etc etc. But often people think that’s that is just a fact and just the way it is. Often as humans we struggle to connect with the potential that is inside all of us.
So as EMDR therapists, we can dive deep into understanding what the blocks might be. And it comes as no surprise to find that these blocks are often connected to something in the past. It might be clients always believing they are stupid because they didn’t get the best GCSE results. Often people feel that others are better because that was the constant message received at school. Clients might believe that success is not possible because they were bullied.
2. Unhook from these past experiences
We can use standard protocol EMDR to help clients process and work through these past experiences. It can feel like they have a strong hook on us and stop us from doing what is really possible. It doesn’t have to be that way.
We can go back to where these seeds were planted and unhook from them.
3. What could the future look like?
I often think that the future template is one of the best kept secrets in EMDR. We can use them so much within a coaching framework. As therapists we can work with our clients getting them to focus on their future goals. We can encourage our clients to connect with what they want to think and feel about themselves in any given situation. Due to a natural tendency to focus on the negatives we often never really think of ourselves coping in a situation, we often think of the worst case scenario and what could go wrong!
Want to find out more? I am running a 90 minute webinar ‘An introduction ot EMDR informed coaching’ Click here to book your slot now.
Hi, my name is Dr Hannah Bryan and I am a Chartered Clinical Psychologist and a Europe Approved EMDR Consultant and Facilitator. In 2006 I trained as an EMDR therapist. I have been an EMDR Consultant since 2014 and an EMDR Facilitator since 2019.
I am extremely passionate about helping clinicians improve their knowledge and skills in EMDR so that they improve their confidence and practice it more with their clients and more clients recover and heal from the traumas they have experienced.
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