I’m Todd Harvey

Marriage & Family Therapist

EMDR & Trauma Specialist

Do You Find Yourself overwhelmed and often hyper-vigilant?

When we experience a physical, sexual, emotional, or toxic childhood trauma, our nervous systems can get too easily activated into overwhelmed or disassociated states.  While those states were adaptive at the time of the trauma, when they are reactivated in the present it is painful.  It is uncomfortable for ourselves and those close to us.  The good news is that even if your nervous system was hurt by very awful things,  we now have the ability to recalibrate the nervous system back to normal modes, re-write over traumatized emotional memories, and learn how to our physiological states in the present.

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Any of these sound familiar?

  • Do things freak you out that you know shouldn’t?
  • Does your wiring from bad things in the pass impact your current relationships?
  • Does incidents of being bullied, beat up, teased, molested, or physically abused impact your life today?
  • Are there things that trigger you excessively?
  • Is your nervous system hyper-vigilant for a long time after an assault, rape, or robbery?
  • Do you avoid bridges, airplanes, cars, large crowds, or leaving your house?

Physical & Sexual Traumas

  • Assault
  • Sexual assault (by stranger)
  • Family Sexual Abuse
  • Date Rape
  • Bullying
  • War – Buddies dying
  • War – Overwhelm

Emotional Traumas

  • Shaming parenting
  • Sibling Bullying
  • Dirty for being sexual
  • Having to be perfect
  • People not believing you when it happened
  • Being falsely accused
  • Spiritual Abuse

EMDR / Trauma Support

Does part of your brain know that things are fine, but you can’t help but feel guarded and on edge?  Do you find yourself “frazzled” and amped and feel threatened?  Has there been a traumatic event in the past that triggers your nervous system to be amped in the present?  Is your fight or flight mode stuck on when you know you are actually safe?  It could be 1 or two incidents, or a pattern of physical or sexual abuse in the past that causes your body to shut down or stay in hyper-vigilance mode.

What Is EMDR?

EMDR is a technique that is empirically validated that is extremely helpful with helping clients who have experienced trauma to effectively work through their traumas and as a result have their nervous system go back to normal.  In a nutshell, how it works, is through processing painful events while doing “bilateral stimulation” (you watching my hand go back and forth), we are tricking your nervous system to allow access to a part of your brain that stores the trauma memory and keeps it in that frozen place where your nervous system still thinks you have to worry about the trauma being present.  Simple Traumas (painful, but one time traumas) can be dealt with typically between 4 and 12 sessions.  More Complex Traumas (from ongoing abuse) can be eradicated as well, but it does take longer because there is more that needs to be cleared. I would love to set up an initial consultation that could allow you to experience EMDR working on a minor issue you have so you can experience the confidence that it will help you overcome your hyper-vigilence/PTSD/over-stimulated nervous system.  If you decide to not work with me at the end of the first session, I will give you your money back.

How Does EMDR Work?

EMDR is a technique that is empirically validated that is extremely helpful with helping clients who have experienced trauma to effectively work through their traumas and as a result have their nervous system go back to normal.  In a nutshell, how it works, is through processing painful events while doing “bilateral stimulation” (you watching my hand go back and forth), we are tricking your nervous system to allow access to a part of your brain that stores the trauma memory and keeps it in that frozen place where your nervous system still thinks you have to worry about the trauma being present.  Simple Traumas (painful, but one time traumas) can be dealt with typically between 4 and 12 sessions.  More Complex Traumas (from ongoing abuse) can be eradicated as well, but it does take longer because there is more that needs to be cleared.

I would love to set up an initial consultation that could allow you to experience EMDR working on a minor issue you have so you can experience the confidence that it will help you overcome your hyper-vigilence/PTSD/over-stimulated nervous system.  If you decide to not work with me at the end of the first session, I will give you your money back.

What Is The Flash Technique?

The Flash Technique is a pre-EMDR protocol developed by Phil Manfield that is very effective at helping individuals reprogram the brain so that specific triggers that are likely to pull you into a hyper-vigilant state don’t do that anymore. The protocol is simple to learn and quite effective. In it you light up a preferred internal experience while almost thinking about a trigger while taking advantage of a couple of brain hacks. One of the brain hacks is when we do bi-lateral stimulation (tapping, looking, or squeezing shoulders left/right) it causes different parts of our brain to listen (often including the part that stores trauma memories). The other brain hack used is intentionally blinking when you plan a subliminal message on yourself causes your subconscious to wake up that memory unconsciously. Click here to find out how the Flash Technique works. 

What is CART?

I developed CART (Couples Activation Reduction Technique). I basically took The Flash Technique and instead of focusing on one internal preferred experience as a resource, I have your partner help add additional resources by adding emotional attunement, eye contact, loving words, and having your partner do the bilateral stimulation by squeezing hands instead of tapping by yourself. Basically, it is protocol where more good things are happening in the brain when we are almost thinking about the threat. And your partner or friend can be part of healing your nervous system instead of being too busy being a victim of you being over-vigilant.

What is The Process Like?

Todd to modify this text with updated info:

Sometimes the process can be frightening at first.  Taking that first step can be a bit daunting, though I hope that this will help you see how simple this can be.  Here are the initial steps to getting started.  Of course, if you have any questions, please feel free to just reach out and call me.  Please use the button below to schedule a time convenient for you.

Let's Talk
1. About Our First Initial Free Phone Call.

When you call me, I will make a time to touch base with you on the telephone for about 15 minutes.  During that first conversation, I’ll ask you to let me know in a nut shell what your struggle is.  For couples, I’ll also ask to talk with your partner for 15 minutes.  My goal is to make sure that the type of challenge that you have is something that I’m equipped to address.  If we determine that it is not a match, then I will  work with you to find some appropriate referrals.  If we do decide to meet, then we will coordinate a time that works for both of us.

2. You want to schedule a call.

To make it easy to schedule, you can go to my calendar to see the options.  Some people prefer to meet in person, and some would still prefer an online chat.  Select your option and confirm what day and time works for you.  I will be ready to great you when you are ready

 

3. What is our First Session like?

Our first session for Individuals:  In our first session, I’ll greet you in the waiting room and show you where our room is.  Once we are settled, I will ask you what brings you here.  I’ll listen to your situation, explain the limits of confidentiality, and provide a game-plan for addressing your concern.

Our First Session for Couples:

I will ask you what brings you here.  I will then ask your partner what brings him/her here.  I will listen to both of your concerns and provide you a game-plan concerning how I propose that we move forward with counseling and what you might expect.  With the remaining time, we will start the exploration of the dance that you and your partner are caught in.  I will initially focus on empathizing with both of you and enhancing unarticulated attachment longings.

4. So we meet, and talked. What next?

If we decide to work together then I will provide you with some paperwork to fill out prior to our next meeting.  We will then schedule our next appointment.  If, however, at the end of the first session you decide that you do not think that we are a fit to work together, then I will not charge you for the first session.  I think that it is extremely important that you find a therapist that you feel comfortable talking to.  If that is not me, I will make a few recommendation to assist you in this process.

5. How many sessions will this take?

Each person or couple is different and unique.  Depending on the topic and the needs, I can help you with a rough timeline that this line of support might take.  Often as we learn more in the discovery process, we uncover other areas that might value some attention.  Depending on how this shows up, we can decide to spread the focus to address this as well, or stay on target for what you originally came in for.  Together we will work through this.