The prevailing culture in Utah as a whole, Utah County, and the Salt Lake Valley places great importance on relationships.
Relationships are the foundation of nearly every aspect of our lives: from love relationships to work relationships to parent/child relationships to friendships to even unhealthy relationships. These relationships create a net of familiarity in our minds, a net that we hope will catch us when we fall, lift us back up when we stumble, support us in our daily lives, cheer us on as we reach for our goals.
Healthy relationships are vital to a peaceful inner and outer life. But often, negative or untrue beliefs that have amassed over the years about ourselves or others can create barriers and even conflict in one, some or even all of these relationships.
The way you view yourself affects more people than just you. How you view yourself affects how you present yourself and others treatment of and expectations for you. When belief systems are unhealthy, even if you don’t realize it, these WILL affect your relationships.
Often, the first place unhealthy belief systems draw attention to themselves is in a love relationship. This is often the closest relationship in your life, the one with the most vulnerability, trust, and lack of restraint. So it makes sense that the person with whom you are in a love relationship is often the one to first draw attention to incorrect beliefs you may have about yourself, them, or even other people.
This observation can be hard to receive without responding defensively. After all, in questioning deeply-held beliefs, it can feel like this person is tugging at your safety net. We build up our belief systems over time in response to our experience of different events. The purpose of them is to ostensibly protect us in the future if such a situation were to arise again. So any perceived rattling of this ‘safety net’ - your beliefs - can be unsettling and cause you to react defensively.
This is normal and completely understandable. If you can see that there may be some truth in your partner’s observations about you, what can you do to improve things so your relationship doesn’t continue to be affected and potentially broken down by these unhealthy beliefs?
EMDR therapy is a proven, powerful tool that helps individuals heal and recover from trauma in a safe, guided environment. At the same time, it gently helps you to challenge your beliefs and belief systems, carefully looking at each belief and asking yourself, ‘Is this belief really helping me?’ ‘Is this belief really true?’ ‘How might changing my belief change my relationship?’
EMDR accomplishes all this by helping you remove the burden of emotion that usually accompanies memories and even beliefs. In this less emotionally-charged setting, you are better able to look objectively at your beliefs and consider what’s working for you and what isn’t.
The eight phases of EMDR therapy build off each other, helping you identify beliefs you want to change, and helping you reprocess these into more accurate, positive belief patterns.
This relatively small investment of time can have a huge impact on your life, including in your closest relationships. When you believe things that are true and positive about yourself and others, you start to act and react differently. This has an immediate and noticeable effect on your relationships.
Countless people just like you have been helped to overcome trauma and unhealthy belief systems using the power of EMDR therapy.
If you are currently residing in Provo, Orem, Lehi, Draper, Sandy, Midvale, Murray, Holladay or the surrounding area, you have access to some of the most highly-trained specialists at Inside Wellness therapy practice.
Our EMDR specialists want to help and support you in your journey towards healthy beliefs, inner peace, and peaceful relationships. Call our warm Care Coordinator today to get started.