EMDR Therapy for Anxiety: How It Can Help Manage and Reduce Symptoms

Anxiety at the Thought of Working in Person

Amazon told their employees this week that they are being called back into the office! What a shock. I don’t know about you, but I was surprised to hear this giant company, run on tech and virtual bots, is requiring all of its employees to come back into work in person. I can just imagine what the disgruntled employees are saying.  

 “I can't believe they are making us go back to work in person!”

 “This is BS! I’m quitting.”

Among those employees who are not enthused by the idea of going back into the office are the numerous who feel immense anxiety.  The thought of getting up and out of the house, enduring a day of in person work just to do it all over again every day of the week is deeply disturbing. Having worked from home (WFH) since the pandemic, a proposed short stint turned into nearly half a decade.  Just the thought of going back to the office brings overwhelming dread, fear, and uneasiness for many. There was dread in going into the office every day before the WFH mandate. For this group of people anxiety is no stranger, but the pandemic brought a peace to their lives by cutting out 90% of the things that activate their symptoms. 

Is it Complaining or Anxiety

Now their minds are sent back into a tizzy, spinning from thought to thought and back again. 

“What will my boss want from me? Will I be good enough? Will I look the part? Who might stop by my cubicle to have small talk and what if I can’t think of what to talk about and how might I get out of it? I am certain the morning huddle will rile up a select few members from the team and off they’ll go with their aggravations, sending more stress into the mix. And then there's lunch. Can I eat alone and not be bothered or is that weird? Driving home is going to be a nightmare and I’ll have to drive that route I hate again and, wait, the commute in the morning is a mess. What if I’m late?” The list of worries goes on and on and the urges to complain and avoid grow bigger and bigger. 

For people who have anxiety their brain ruminates, spiraling on the same worries over and over again, never satisfied. They have a dreadful time with changes and the unknown. The feelings are mental and often physical, generating tension, shallow or rapid breathing, a jittery or buzzing feeling, nausea, headaches and digestive issues, to name a few. In an effort to not feel these things avoidance rises to the top of the list. It pushes off the activation and allows the anxiety ridden person to have a moment of peace. 

EMDR Can Help

While the WFH gig served its purpose and is now on its way out for some companies, like Amazon, it also merely tucked the box of anxiety into the back of the closet. With the box being brought out into the forefront, it’s going to be essential for these anxious employees to find themselves the support of a therapist, preferably an EMDR therapist. 

Did you know that EMDR is fantastic for EMDR? We talk often about it being a gold standard for trauma, but the effectiveness for anxiety is the same, if not better than that of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). 

Managing symptoms

The Preparation phase of EMDR, phase 2, has numerous resources to aid a person in managing emotions, including bouts of anxiety. These resources are catered to the individual to help with nervous system regulation and establishing present focus and safety. A couple of resources that your therapist may develop with you include:

• A Calm/Safe place or Calm state

• Breathing Techniques

• Observation of the present moment

• Progressive Muscle Relaxation

• Utilizing temperature to bring about relaxation 

• Containment resources 

Reducing Symptoms

All in all, who doesn’t want their symptoms to just go away? With EMDR the roots of the anxiety are targeted, desensitized, and reprocessed. Many peoples present day anxiety has a tie to something that occurred when they were younger. It’s not too cliche to say the issues go back to childhood and often family of origin. 

Finding the roots of the issue are important and EMDR has an effective way of doing this with a technique called “The Float Back Technique”. If the origin of the anxiety  about going into the office is found to have started when a person was young and rushed out of the house on the way to school every day, this childhood memory is accessed, the emotions are experienced and desensitized, responsibility is appropriately allocated, and new learning takes root. This process then allows the present day person to live in a more free and easy way. The symptoms just go away. The morning routine is no longer punctuated by a racing heart and mind, but rather confidence. 

Giving EMDR a try for anxiety is worth more than a shot, it’ll give you your life back. 

Additional Therapy Services at Sage Leaf Wellness

At Sage Leaf Wellness, we are committed to helping you heal. EMDR therapy in Saint Paul, MN, is an effective treatment for anxiety. In addition to EMDR, we have many other modalities to support each person’s specific needs. Our team recognizes that each person's journey is unique, so we provide various therapy options tailored to individual needs. Our services include Anxiety Therapy,Trauma Therapy,Marriage and Couples Counseling, and more. Get set up with a therapist today to start your healing journey.