Kellie Shamenski RCC

she/her/hers

counsellor

West Vancouver location

Providing EMDR therapy

In-person and online available

Mondays  11am - 5 pm

EMDR therapy only
Book Online

My thoughts on therapy

Building a better and more balanced connection with yourself forms the foundation of successful therapy. Nurturing a healthier, kinder relationship with all of your parts can be challenging, particularly if you have experienced trauma within your relationships. When we have experiences that mimic and reinforce the old thoughts, feelings and assumptions that we have always had about ourselves and/or others we can feel stuck, uncertain, scared or angry. We want to get out of these loops and free ourselves from the limiting beliefs and patterns that have misdirected us. Contrary to how it may feel at times, these are realistic goals!

I absolutely love working with clients and being a witness to their healing journey.

 

Me and my therapeutic approach

I am a Registered Clinical Counsellor specializing in trauma, anxiety and couples- counselling. Over the last 15 years as a counsellor I have worked with many therapeutic modalities and take wisdom from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Attachment Theory and Internal Family Systems. My favourite modality is EMDR, which I find to be very powerful. I am trained in both EMDR 2.0 as well Attachment-based EMDR.

What is EMDR therapy?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. However, repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference.
EMDR is particularly effective at relieving symptoms related to PTSD and Complex PTSD, anxiety and panic attacks, grief and loss,  depression, anger, phobias, performance anxiety, sleep problems and feelings of worthlessness/low self-esteem. As a clinician I find this modality to be highly effective in immediately reducing the emotional arousal that lies within the body, all the while, reforming negative core beliefs associated with traumas from our past. 
 
EMDR utilizes the natural healing ability of your body to process and integrate trauma. Treatment with EMDR includes a thorough assessment and development of a treatment plan. You will be asked specific questions about a particular disturbing memory or a series of events that place this information (images, sensations, thoughts) in your working memory. Eye movements, similar to those during REM sleep, will be recreated simply by asking you to watch my hand or the virtual moving ball, moving backwards and forwards across your visual field. The eye movements will last for a short while and then stop. You will then be asked to report back on the experiences you have had during each of these sets of eye movements. Experiences during a session often include immediate changes in thoughts, images and feelings. With repeated sets of eye movements, the memory tends to change in such a way that it loses its painful intensity and simply becomes a neutral memory of an event in the past. Other associated memories may also heal at the same time that are linked to the trauma. This linking of related memories can lead to a dramatic and rapid improvement in many aspects of your life.