Hawaii Island Recovery 
The more we learn about substance abuse, and addictive behaviors like gambling, anorexia, bulimia, and other destructive, unhealthy activities, the more quickly we address the issues that undermine the quality of life.
EMDR Webinar
Hawaii Island Recovery (HIR) recently released its full webinar describing the proven, documented benefits of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) featuring expert and authority Fernando Manon taking questions from viewers.
Watch the HIR webinar now.
EMDR and Addiction
Each day we encounter “triggers” that elicit a programmed response. You hear an old love song and you’re taken back. You catch a whiff of a familiar perfume. You drive past a favorite restaurant. Each day we’re exposed to emotional triggers that activate a response – sometimes pleasurable, sometimes painful.
In this informative webinar, Hawaii Island Recovery’s Fernando Manon introduces the benefits of EMDR therapy in treating a long list of addictive, destructive behaviors based on buried memories of deep emotional stress.
Unrecognized emotional and physical trauma has long been cited as contributing factors to addiction. You may not know why you drink as much as you do. You may not recognize why you abuse dangerous drugs. You’re confused about body image so you over-eat or under-eat.
Because our emotional scars are invisible, and perhaps repressed within the brain’s memory bank, we’re unaware that they even exist. Instead, all these years, many of us self-medicate with drugs that make us forget or self-destructive behaviors that are toxic to a satisfying,
well-rounded life.
EMDR is a multi-step process of recovery.
Identifying previously unrecognized emotional scars takes place during an extensive intake interview. Working one-on-one, HIR residents discover the source of emotional trauma. They rediscover when the trauma occurred and list “self-medication” they’ve used to mask unrecognized traumatic pain, sometimes for decades.
EMDR therapy is a non-invasive means to train the brain to respond differently to long-buried emotional trauma. During EMDR therapy, many people experience an “Aha moment” when they suddenly recall a traumatic incident, long forgotten, but affecting the quality of life every single day.
The Benefits of EMDR Explained
Fernando describes the benefits of EMDR, a therapy that is evolving as practitioners learn more about the brain’s response to reprogramming long-embedded traumatic memories.
EMDR is effective.
The respected journal, Scientific American, states, “Numerous controlled studies show that EMDR produces improvement…in alleviating the symptoms of civilian PTSD, such as those triggered by rape.”
Post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is a major starting point for addictive, self-destructive behaviors. Individuals who have witnessed the horrors of war, or have been physically and/or emotionally abused, often turn to addictive substances to avoid thinking about painful trauma.
EMDR works quickly.
Emotional pain never goes away. It’s with us throughout the day and, in cases of addiction, that emotional pain has inserted itself into everyday life.
Another benefit of EMDR is that it works quickly – often several serene sessions of EMDR therapy eliminate the source of anxiety by reprogramming the brain’s emotional triggers.
EMDR addresses the causes of substance abuse instead of masking symptoms.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of EMDR therapy is that it doesn’t mask emotional pain, it provides us with an effective means of confronting the sources of pain in productive ways.
EMDR heals past trauma and prepares us for future trauma.
Fernando explains the key benefit of EMDR.
Yes, EMDR is a scientifically proven method of identifying past traumas and reprogramming the brain to react positively in confronting past traumas, however, trauma is routine in our highly competitive, global society.
At HIR, eye movement desensitization and reprogramming is used to prepare us for whatever the future holds. We no longer react automatically to stress in our lives. EMDR provides the tools to address trauma in an emotionally healthy fashion.
At Hawaii Island Recovery, EMDR is used to address repressed sources of stress – triggers about which we knew nothing.
To learn more about the benefits of EMDR, be sure to visit HIR’s Fernando Manon’s informative webinar on a proven therapy to treat
repressed memories and the brain’s response to those memories.
EMDR works. HIR hands you the tools.
