Why Micah Loves EMDR
One of my first social work jobs I had after my undergrad was working as a housing case manager supporting young adults who were experiencing homelessness find and hold housing. I really enjoyed this role and valued being able to work one on one with clients to help them achieve their goals. However, I found that too often, my clients struggled to maintain those goals in the way they would like to due to mental health challenges. As a team we attempted to support people as much as possible, providing housing, basic needs, and safe people to talk to, but many of our client’s traumas were so significant that they continued to get tripped up by them. I’m a strong believer in Housing First as a practice and saw many people succeed because that stability gave them the footing they needed to keep stepping, but this wasn’t always the case. Seeing first hand the impact past experiences had on these young people drew my interest to studying trauma as it seemed to be the impetus for the mental health challenges my clients were experiencing.
I feel so lucky that I found Seattle EMDR Associates and fortunate enough to have interned here during my second year of graduate school. I now am proud and grateful to be working as an associate at such a meaningful practice. Learning about EMDR has provided me with the knowledge I was seeking to understand , the significance that trauma has on all of us. EMDR has given me a structure to start from when working with clients and has shaped my theory of change and world view. EMDR affirms my belief that people are not broken, their experiences have shaped how they move through and perceive the world and oftentimes, the way they show up was actually adaptive to keep themself safe. I love how effective EMDR is in supporting individuals to see that their brains and bodies have been their protectors, that they can heal the wounds they’ve collected, and implement new adaptive information to show up the way they’d like to. I love that EMDR gets to the core of the client’s pain and addresses the activation they feel unlike anything else I’ve seen.
In my first year as a clinician I have already seen how significant EMDR has been in my client’s lives and the change it has allowed my clients to make. I am deeply honored to be doing this work and excited to continue it.
