Key Insights The Core Mechanism:  EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (eye movements, sounds, or tapping) while you briefly focus on traumatic memories, helping your brain "unstick" and reprocess them naturally, similar to how your brain processes experiences during REM sleep. What Makes It Different:  You don't need to describe your trauma in detail or complete homework between sessions. EMDR focuses on helping your brain integrate memories rather than analyzing them verbally, w

Key Insights High-functioning anxiety  is not an official diagnosis, but that doesn't make it any less real. It describes people who experience significant anxiety symptoms while maintaining high performance at work and in life, often at significant expense to their wellbeing . Unlike typical anxiety that may cause avoidance, high-functioning anxiety often drives overworking, perfectionism, and people-pleasing , making it harder to recognize. Generic advice like "just relax"

Key Insights Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)  is a structured, short-term approach (typically 5–20 sessions) that focuses on the present moment. It helps you identify and challenge negative thought patterns, providing practical coping tools for rapid symptom relief from conditions like anxiety and depression. Psychodynamic Therapy (PDT) , rooted in the work of Sigmund Freud, takes a longer, exploratory approach, often spanning months or years. It helps you uncover how unco

TLDR: Timelines at a Glance Single-Incident Trauma (e.g., car accident, isolated event) Typical session count:  4–10 sessions (including preparation) Estimated duration:  1–2 months Clinical focus:  Processing one or two specific target memories Complex Trauma / C-PTSD (chronic, developmental, or multiple events) Typical session count:  12+ sessions (often 12–20 or more) Estimated duration:  Several months to over a year Clinical focus:  Extended Phase 2 preparation to build

Key Insights Somatic Experiencing (SE) and Hypnosis both help people heal from trauma, but they work in very different ways. SE, developed by Dr. Peter Levine, is a body-based therapy  that helps release trauma stored in the nervous system through awareness of sensations, gentle movement, and nervous system regulation. Clients stay fully conscious and learn to complete unfinished fight-flight-freeze responses so the body can return to safety. Hypnosis , or Hypnotherapy , work

Key Insights Hypoarousal , also known as the freeze response  or dorsal vagal shutdown , is a primitive survival state triggered when the nervous system perceives an overwhelming threat from which escape is impossible. It is characterized by hypoarousal symptoms  such as emotional numbness, chronic exhaustion, dissociation, mental fog, and severe executive dysfunction. To learn how to get out of hypoarousal , one can use somatic (bottom-up) strategies  that reintroduce gent