EMDR Therapy: Denver men's therapy

EMDR Therapy can break through what’s holding you back.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a well-established integrative psychotherapy approach that treats many common psychological issues. This approach is a particularly good fit for many men seeking therapy.

Are the important relationships in your life falling apart? Is something at work getting the best of you? Are you bothered or troubled by a persistent fear, stress, or anxiety? Maybe loved ones are telling you that they are concerned about you.

These feelings are tough and confusing.  Very often these negative thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, and feelings are caused by unresolved life experiences. If you find you are stuck or challenged like so many other men you can take steps to get back on track before things get worse. Working with a EMDR therapist at Denver Men’s Therapy can help you get things back on track and feel your true self again. Strong and able to meet life’s challenges.

What happens in EMDR Therapy? Is there something that makes it different? What’s a session actually like?

What is EMDR therapy for men?

EMDR therapy is a great fit for the men we work with at Denver Men’s Therapy. Read our in-depth EMDR Guide: What is EMDR Therapy for Men? to learn more. We combine our advanced training in EMDR therapy with our specialization in Men’s Issues. We strongly acknowledge and understand that men experience and respond to depression, stress, trauma and life experiences in a unique way. In addition, men experience mental health symptoms differently than their female counterparts. Therefore, we explore how masculinity, gender roles, and expectations may be contributing and interacting with current struggles.

While it’s true that our changing world makes being a man these days a little confusing, we also believe that men have incredible and healthy strengths, resources and skills. We build and strengthen these during the EMDR therapy process. In other words, we work to resolve what’s holding you back while improving what makes you a uniquely awesome man.

EMDR Therapy for Men Treats:

8 Phases of EMDR Therapy

EMDR therapy is a phase-oriented therapy. This means that each phase builds on itself. It also means that you always understand where you are in the therapy process and why you are doing what you are doing.

Phase 1: History and Treatment Planning

In the first phase of EMDR treatment, we explore your history and develop a treatment plan. This phase will include a discussion of the specific problem that brought you into therapy, and the behaviors and symptoms stemming from that problem.

Phase 2: Preparation

In this phase, the therapist will teach you some specific techniques so you can rapidly deal with any emotional disturbance that may arise.  During this phase, we will also identify and strengthen the positive aspects of your masculinity like being a father, good friend, or hard working.   One of the primary goals of the preparation phase is to establish a relationship of trust between you and the therapist. If you do not trust your therapist you may not accurately report what you feel and experience during the eye movements.

Phase 3: Assessment

In this phase, you will be prompted to notice different aspects of a specific memory.

Phase 4: Desensitization

In this phase, We reprocess the disturbing incident until it is neutral. You will still remember the incident, but it will no longer cause you distress.

Phase 5: Installation

The goal is to concentrate on and increase the strength of the positive response you have identified to replace your original negative response. During this fifth phase of treatment, your positive responses will be strengthened.

Phase 6: Body scan

After the positive response has been strengthened and installed, we will ask you to bring the original target event to mind and see if any residual tension is noticed in the body. If so, these physical sensations are then targeted for reprocessing.

Phase 7: Closure scan

Closure ensures that you leave at the end of each session feeling better than at the beginning. If the processing of the traumatic target event is not complete in a single session, we will assist you in using a variety of self-calming techniques in order to regain a sense of equilibrium.

Phase 8: Reevaluation

At the beginning of subsequent sessions, we check to make sure that the positive results have been maintained, identify any new areas that need treatment and continue reprocessing the additional targets. The Reevaluation Phase guides us through the treatment plans that are needed to deal with our problems. As with any form of good therapy, reevaluation is vital in order to determine the success of the treatment over time.

EMDR therapy is not complete until attention has been brought to the past memories that are contributing to the problem, the present situations that are disturbing, and what skills you may need for the future.

Denver EMDR Therapists

If you are looking for a Denver EMDR therapist for men, you’re in the right spot. Our therapists are EMDR Certified. This means that they have advanced EMDR training beyond basic training. 

What our male clients in Denver say about EMDR therapy:

Good Fit For Men

“With EMDR I didnt need to talk forever like talk therapy. Sometimes I can’t put words to my feelings and that was okay. We also got to work right away, it felt like I was taking action to solve the problem.” – S. D.

Effective

“EMDR therapy at Denver Men’s Therapy really help me get life back on track.” – B.B.

Mindful

“Using mindfulness as a staple of their practice, Denver Men’s Therapy is skilled in effective EMDR therapy, and is a leader in the area of men’s mental health, helping to normalize therapy services.” – K. J.

Our Team at Denver Men’s Therapy work exclusively with men on men’s issues.

Our special focus on helping men with trauma, anxiety, and depression through EMDR therapy in Denver provides you with the unique opportunity to resolve the roadblocks in your life. At Denver Men’s Therapy, we are flipping the old script on the modern American male. The script that says he is expected to publicly be strong and display only an aggressive persona that is always in control of his surroundings. To show vulnerability is not acceptable. The problem with this narrative is it often leaves men to face emotional trauma alone and in silence. Our practice gives men the place and time to safely wander away from the difficult spot the American man is in these days.  In therapy, we can explore what it means to be a man in today’s society, while we uncover the root causes of emotional trauma and anxiety that is keeping you stuck.

Take the first step to getting unstuck. Open the door to discovering how EMDR therapy will help what is troubling you. Call 720.295.4233 or click below to schedule an initial session with our collective. Click below to find out if EMDR therapy for men may work for you.