Letting go of old stories through EMDR and expressive therapies

Our understanding of who we are and the experiences we have been through is defined by the stories we tell. Not just the stories we say out loud–like the time we were embarrassed at a school assembly, or how we got our first job or met a romantic partner–but the ones we may not even know we have internalized. You might have grown up with the story “family should be loyal to one another” or “family will let you down”. You might have learned “my health is in my control” or “not being productive is lazy and shameful”. It could be a general sense of “I have to prove my worth”, or a specific belief, “the shape of my body is flawed”.

These stories belong in the past, with the memories they came from. Instead, we carry them with us like a backpack full of heavy weights.