Addiction and trauma often feed each other, and both take a toll on your mental and physical health. At Extra Mile Recovery, we offer EMDR therapy in Mississippi to help clients work through trauma at its root. Our team includes a specialist trained specifically in this approach, so you get more than general counseling. You get a therapy built for exactly what you’re carrying.
Treating Addiction & Trauma with EMDR Therapy
Trauma resists talk therapy alone in a lot of cases. We offer eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, an evidence-based approach built specifically for trauma. Our resident EMDR specialist helps clients engage with their trauma directly, no matter how severe, and move past it. Addiction and trauma are often tangled together, and treating one without the other rarely holds long-term. EMDR therapy for addiction gives clients a way to address both at once.
Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing at Extra Mile Recovery
EMDR effectively treats trauma tied to addiction, though trained specialists in this discipline are still hard to find. The method is fairly new, and specialized training takes time most therapists haven’t had access to. We’re proud to offer EMDR therapy in Mississippi backed by real hands-on expertise on our team. Our Clinical Director, Rod Farrar, is a respected EMDR specialist who leads our team.
Trauma, like addiction, is complex, and lasting impacts from traumatic experiences can derail progress in an addiction rehab program. EMDR looks at the many ways trauma shapes a client’s thoughts, behaviors, and reactions. Rather than just talking through what happened, EMDR uses a structured process to help clients actually work through it. Clients leave sessions with real tools, not just a better understanding of their trauma.
Rod Farrar, Clinical Director, EMDR Specialist
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What Is EMDR Trauma Therapy?
EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, is a form of EMDR trauma-focused therapy. It can make a real difference for clients who have experienced trauma. Trauma causes people to attach intense negative feelings to memories of specific events. When someone recalls those memories, overwhelming feelings can make it hard to focus on anything else. Daily life becomes harder, and using can start to feel like the only escape from those memories.
EMDR is designed to ease this distress through desensitization. At Extra Mile Recovery, we identify the trauma’s source and its triggers. We then link them to healthier thought patterns and behaviors. These new associations dampen the impact of triggers, and even the trauma response itself, making everyday life more manageable.
How Does EMDR Work?
EMDR works by training a client to focus on positive or neutral things while recalling past trauma. Therapists guide the client through something called bilateral stimulation. It simply means alternating left-right movement or touch, like tapping each hand or following a finger with your eyes. The back-and-forth pattern helps the brain process the memory differently than it did the first time.
According to Innovations in Clinical Neuroscience, bilateral stimulation can take a variety of forms. Examples include eye movements, knee tapping, headphones, or handheld buzzers called tappers. Each therapist selects the method that works best for the individual client. Some people respond better to sound or touch than to visual tracking, so there’s flexibility built into the process.
EMDR treatment in Mississippi uses this back-and-forth stimulation to help clients engage with trauma directly. Positive thinking works alongside it, easing the intensity of the memory over time. EMDR therapy helps clients move past traumatic events, stop replaying negative memories, and step away from destructive coping behaviors. Overwhelming memories start to feel like something that happened, not something still happening.
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The Eight Phases of EMDR
EMDR isn’t a single conversation. It’s a step-by-step process with eight phases, moving from your history toward actually reprocessing the trauma. Each phase builds on the one before it, so you’re never asked to jump into the hardest part first. Here’s what each stage actually involves.
PHASE 1
Clients begin by talking about their personal history and experience with trauma, treatment, and any co-occurring conditions. The therapist also helps the client develop a treatment plan.
PHASE 2
Stress reduction techniques are taught to help clients prepare for engaging with their trauma.
PHASE 3-6
These are different stages of processing the trauma. Clients identify a positive belief, especially one that counters the negative emotion. They focus on the image, the negative thought, and bodily sensations from an external stimulus, all at the same time. Doing this helps the client confront negative thoughts without the intense emotional response.
The therapist then guides the client to let their thoughts flow naturally after processing sessions. If the client still has difficulty, the therapist helps them calm down and try a different positive belief. Once the client feels no significant negative response, they work with the therapist on bringing that thinking into daily life.
PHASE 7
The client writes down events related to their trauma or EMDR training for several days. During this time, they keep practicing the calming exercises learned back in Phase 2.
PHASE 8
The client considers past events that led to this point, along with any trauma or triggers still causing distress. They also think through how the future may call for different responses. A new targeted trauma may be selected, and treatment begins again at Phase 1.
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Addiction Rehab and Trauma at Extra Mile Recovery
Many clients who deal with addiction also carry an unresolved mental health condition. It’s common enough that we offer specialized dual-diagnosis treatment, so clients manage both together rather than as separate battles. Trauma often comes from physical or sexual abuse, domestic violence, neglect, injury, grief, or loss. It can also come from something as ordinary as years spent under a high-pressure or overly critical boss.
Regardless of the source, the effects of trauma can be complex. EMDR therapy for addiction gives clients real relief during rehab, even alongside trauma or PTSD. EMDR therapy in Mississippi is built to meet clients wherever they are in that process. Our team works with you to figure out which approach fits your history best.
Start EMDR Therapy in Mississippi Today
Trauma doesn’t have to run the show anymore. If you’re ready to work through it instead of just managing it, our team is here to help. We’ve built our approach around real clinical training and lived experience, not guesswork. Contact Extra Mile Recovery to learn more about EMDR therapy in Mississippi and how it fits into your recovery.
FAQs About Our EMDR Therapy in Mississippi
Here are a few questions people often ask before starting EMDR therapy in Mississippi with us.
How many EMDR sessions does it typically take to see results?
Most clients notice a shift within a handful of sessions, though full processing of a single trauma can take longer. Your specialist adjusts pacing to what you can handle, not a fixed schedule.
Can EMDR be combined with other therapies like CBT?
Yes, EMDR works well alongside other approaches, including cognitive behavioral therapy. Many clients use both together as part of a broader treatment plan.
Do I need a formal PTSD diagnosis to benefit from EMDR?
No, EMDR can help with a wide range of distressing memories, not just diagnosed PTSD. Our specialist evaluates your history to see if it’s a good fit.
What if I don’t want to describe my trauma in detail?
EMDR doesn’t require you to narrate every detail of what happened. The process focuses more on how memories are stored than on retelling the story out loud.
Does EMDR still work for trauma from many years ago?
Yes, EMDR is often effective for older memories, not just recent events. The brain can still reprocess long-standing trauma with the right guidance.
