When talking about feelings, trust is an essential one for therapy - and for life outside the therapy room. It's a tricky emotion, that feels so safe when we have it, and so threatening when we don't.
Trust might be the first warm, soothing, relieving emotion we feel after the scares of being born. Triggered by the sound and smell of our mother, by the sensation of being held, by the warmth of another body. It makes us relax and forget.
Being able to reinstall trust when we feel scared, worried, threatened is a key task in therapy. We often call it 'going to a safe place', a place inside ourselves that triggers a feeling of safety and: trust. EMDR is very powerful when it comes to installing a safe place and bringing it up in moments of scare and upset. The combination of evoking imagery, sounds, scents and haptics, in combination with bilateral stimulation helps the brain to capture and store the safe place and all sensations that are associated with it. It's a bit like dropping a needle on an electronic map - the location gets stored.
We will talk much more about trust and safety in future posts. Stay connected!
Eva