Bob Fischer, MA, Counseling and Human Services, LMHCA

In working with adverse childhood experiences – and many people have several – I use a process that's tailored to each client. We’ll pay close attention to what pace of work is right for you. We’ll work together to develop your ability to be mindfully present and peaceful in your daily life. We can look at the coping tools you have been using, and look for ways to make them more adaptive for your present life. We can use some powerful tools to strengthen your internal resources. All these steps work to make sure your psyche is on a firm foundation. This may be a relatively fast process or may take more time, making it all that much more important. The EMDR work itself — reprocessing traumas — doesn't have to be traumatic. We can work with a whole range of tools to stay within your range of emotional tolerance as we work. Overall the aim is to make the process of healing as gentle as possible, while making sure we're seeing progress and improvement each step of the way.

I believe that each of us has the capacity, deep within, to heal. My role is to help open up that capacity in you, to guide your healing, to recognize when your process has become stuck and find a way to help you unstick yourself, and to act as a loving witness and advocate for your healing process. Using EMDR, we can quickly heal painful habits in the present – addiction and addictive behaviors, anxiety, rage, depression, avoidance – as well as healing those memories from the past that may be painful to look at directly. EMDR helps you to heal in a way which is less painful than you might be imagining. It might feel like the healing has to be as painful as the original hurt, but that isn't so. By making sure that you have the resources you need before we start processing, and by pacing the work using your internal gauge, I'll help you get find your way through this healing process without having to drown in the original pain.