Strength In Your Story Counseling Services provides effective, affordable and convenient therapy - strengthening the lives of our community one heart, soul and mind at a time. Monica Stuchlik, MA, NCC, LPCC, the practice provider, has a background in providing trauma-informed therapy in multidisciplinary intensive residential settings. She practices from a bio-psycho-social lens and her own journey of understanding and overcoming multiple health challenges. Monica works with her clients to co-create a path to wellness, utilizing strength-based therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and holistic modalities. Monica also utilizes EMDR therapy, which utilizes bilateral stimulation to free a trapped traumatic memory from the sub-cognitive area of the brain. Bilateral stimulation creates rhythmic movement in the brain from right to left hemispheres, which allows the brain to relax during the process of freeing the trapped traumatic memory. Once relaxed, the brain has the capacity to begin processing the memory with rational thought. While this process may sound heady, it doesn't take a PhD to understand how it works. In fact, you may compare it to massage therapy where a therapist uses rhythmic massage to reduce knots in a muscle. Trapped traumatic memories are like knots which form around muscle injury...they are designed to protect the human psyche. While originally experiencing traumas, the brain sometimes shuts down normal thought process and sets in motion fight, flight or freeze responses necessary for survival. Many factors around the event contribute to the size of the trauma knot...especially the coping resources of that individual, such as age, continuing stress, and community resources. Following a traumatic event, an individual might feel numb, experience hair-trigger reactions, a lack of focus, audio/visual disturbances and short-term memory disturbances. If you are experiencing these symptoms, reduce stress and consider EMDR therapy.