Accessing pre-traumatic prenatal experience using EMDR:  Uncovering a powerful resource of equanimity, integration, and self-esteem in the pre-traumatized self

This article is a preliminary report on the remarkable results some of my clients and I have been achieving using EMDR to target prenatal trauma, with a focus on the discovery of an experience of the self prior to any trauma occurring and the enormous healing power that derives from revisiting and reactivating this extraordinarily positive pretraumatic experience. It is with some hesitation that I am reporting my experience with prenatal trauma processing, as I do not wish to be seen as on the fringe or even over the edge by my colleagues. However, I realize that I was able to overcome my prejudices -through examination of the facts- about the nature of prenatal experience, when memory begins, and how it can be accessed. I have found there is a body of scientific investigation and knowledge on prenatal experience and trauma, and that indeed we do experience and are influenced by our environment in the womb. We can learn from such experience, and therefore, can be traumatized prior to birth. The prenatal self can feel and record this experience. I refer the reader to www.birthpsychology.com/resources/ index.html for a list of publications on this matter. The various kinds of pre- and perinatal trauma and the deep healing that results when processed with EMDR will be the object of other articles by myself and Dr. Heather Pearson, who is also investigating this same field. What I intend to focus on here is the discovery of a pre-traumatic experience at the embryonic stage, which I have found to be a remarkably powerful internal resource for healing, already developed and installed, simply requiring reactivation. When I saw the powerful healing results of reactivation of this pre-traumatic experience in a number of relatively “stuck” clients, I felt ethically bound to report this immediately to other clinicians using EMDR so that others may benefit.

Newsletter

English

Brian Lynn

Lynn, B. (2000, September). Accessing pre-traumatic prenatal experience using EMDR: Uncovering a powerful resource of equanimity, integration, and self-esteem in the pre-traumatized self. EMDRIA Newsletter, 5(3), 6-7