"Sometimes you think the whole world is falling, and it's only yourself that's leaning".

Pearl Bailey, in her book The Raw Pearl, 1969.

If you tilt your head right now and check out the above photo and the quote from that vantage point, does it bring home the concept a bit further?

Our individual slant in perspective can skew our understanding.

When I first came across this quote as a teenager, I would tilt my head and feel into that “leaning”. The Leaning Tower of Pisa would come to mind.

Now, as a trauma therapist, I appreciate this quote anew. It still rings true, only now I appreciate how complex it can be to discover that punchline phrase at the end -- “it is only you leaning”.

There is confirmation bias to contend with, made especially hard if it includes a trauma response context. Claims like “I am not safe” or “I can’t win” may ring true, but the words may be strains of an autonomically wired nervous system with pathways originating in trauma.

If it is wired into your nervous system, it can be really hard to discern if there's skew or lean.

That’s where trauma-informed work can factor in.

From EMDR’s Adaptive Information Processing hypothesis (the AIP model), wiring within your neural pathways gets activated and continues to operate below any cerebral efforts to change. A 3-pronged approach to look at the past, present, and future template can clear painful, deeper autonomic trauma responses. Then, EMDR can guide you to reprocess those memories and discoveries can be made. Before EMDR processing, such connections and insight were unknown, but via EMDR, in the end, such realizations seem almost obvious.

EMDR can be like that.

You may end up suddenly seeing things differently or anew with EMDR.

Akin to Pearl Bailey’s quote

– once you straighten that head, it can feel so obvious that it was only you leaning.

You can call me, and I will help you work to make such a change. Call.