Dissociation

There is a moment before we understand what we are feeling when a sensation happens in the body first, and the mind tries to catch up. This happened to me recently in a way I had never experienced before, and it taught me something important about what it actually means to feel your feelings rather than simply think about them.

If you've been doing the work in therapy for a while and someone recently mentioned EMDR, you might be sitting with a mix of curiosity and hesitation. That's completely normal. EMDR asks something different of the nervous system than traditional talk therapy does, and knowing whether you're ready for that shift isn't always obvious from the outside.

Not everyone who walks into therapy wants to just talk, or is ready to breathe their way through anxiety. Maggie Reichler, Licensed Associate Counselor, shares why distraction and dissociation aren't problems to eliminate, but clues pointing toward what someone needs to feel safe in their own body.