Getting Past Your Past

automatically nonetheless. These types of automatic responses can be wonderful and useful, and show the power of our minds, but they don't always serve us.

Take a look at the sentences themselves. Your response to "Roses are red" wasn't a critical evaluation of its meaning. Your mind just moved along with a response as if it was true. But roses aren't always red. They are also yellow, pink, purple and most any color you can think of. However, that unexamined sentence looks just fine at first glance. And how about the second one: Violets are blue. Are they really? No, actually they are purple. But the line will come up whether it's true or not. Now, probably the sentence didn't cause you any kind of distress. But that same type of automatic response also causes a wide range of problems that disrupt happiness, families and communities. The same mind/brain processes that allow us to recognize a rhyme, or sing along with a tune we haven't heard in 20 years, are the ones that can also drown us in the misery of anxiety, depression, heartache and at times physical pain.

The nursery rhyme has even more to offer. Remember the line that comes after "Violets are blue"? "Sugar is sweet and so are you." Lovely sentiment, and it also comes to mind automatically. But as we all know, while sugar is surely sweet, people are lots more complicated. Everyone is a mixture of sweet, sour and every flavor and variation under the sun. At some point, everyone is angry, sad, jealous, bitter, hurt, insecure, happy or sweet. And when we are, we act accordingly. One moment we cherish the one we are with and cover them with kisses. A day later we may explode and yell at them in frustration. So, basically, some of what we've learned growing up is true, but just as with all the other experiences we've had through childhood, other things are not. Often as youngsters we can't tell the difference, and what we take to be real--such as believing we are inferior bec

Author of The Developing Mind and Mindsight

In Getting Past Your Past, Dr. Francine Shapiro, the developer of EMDR and one of the leading clinical innovators in psychotherapy, translates her groundbreaking method into practical suggestions for those who have been stuck in past events from which they have been unable to free themselves. Eminently readable, Dr. Shapiro has written a volume that is a wonderful resource for those in psychotherapy, as well as those seeking to help themselves. This is a valuable companion for anyone who seeks an understanding of how the past can be carried in our memory networks influencing how we perceive the world, as well as offering practical strategies for growth. Jeffrey J. Magnavita, Ph.D., ABPP Past President of the Division of Psychotherapy of the American Psychological Association Founder of the Unified Psychotherapy Project

Francine Shapiro's discovery of EMDR is one of the most important breakthroughs in the history of psychotherapy. Having used it as part of my practice for the past 15 years, I, and many of my patients, still marvel at the depth and speed with which it can help heal and change the minds and brains, and even bodily symptoms of people who have been locked in, and suffering from trauma, often for decades. Getting Past Your Past is a wonderful place to begin to understand how such mental healing can occur, filled with case histories of people that are so transformed that these accounts may seem exaggerated. They are not. This book has all the sobriety of a master clinician who has worked in the field of trauma for decades, and is clear, serious, helpful, as it shares with the reader a method of healing trauma that has already helped millions. Norman Doidge, MD Author of The Brain That Changes Itself

In Getting Past Your Past, Francine Shapiro takes her innovative therapy, EMDR, to people everywhere, making the insights and strategies of EMDR treatment available to a broad audience. The transformation of EMDR treatment strategies into self-help techniques is yet another step in Shapiro's journey to make healing from trauma available to all. This book will be a valuable resource for therapists and clients alike, as well as for the many individuals who struggle with the effects of painful life experiences but who do not seek formal treatment. Laura S. Brown, Ph.D. ABPP Past-President, APA Division of Trauma Psychology Director, Fremont Community Therapy Project

I am forever indebted to Francine Shapiro and EMDR therapy, which helped me to heal from a terrifying panic disorder. People in pain will now be able to read this groundbreaking book and understand how disturbing memories can be reprocessed. Our lives can become joyful instead of fearful. We can live in the present instead of the past. Priscilla Warner, author of Learning to Breathe and coauthor of The Faith Club

Getting Past Your Past provides readers with powerful new insights to understand how traumas and disturbances of all kinds disrupt human potential, and how they can deal with their own distress. Through well-chosen case studies the reader shares the profound experiences of a wide range of individuals and learns the EMDR treatment strategies that have enabled clients to strip "visceral" feelings from memories as a turning point on their path to self-regulation and personal safety. Stephen W. Porges, PhD Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Brain-Body Center at the University of Illinois at Chicago Author of The Polyvagal Theory: Neurophysiological foundations of emotions, attachment, communication, and self-regulation

I am grateful to Francine Shapiro for having written Getting Past your Past, a lucid and practical book for transforming people's lives and helping them to savor living in the moment. EMDR is a powerfully effective treatment for overcoming the traumatic imprints of the past. Bessel van der Kolk MD Medical Director Trauma Center, Justice Resource Institute Director, National Complex Trauma Treatment Network Professor of Psychiatry Boston University School of Medicine

It appears that Dr. Francine Shapiro has discovered a profound linkage between the mind and body so that each might be healed. These stories of the rebalancing and revivifying of our dynamic nature reminds us that there are successful approaches to healing that are presently offering remarkable cures. Stephen and Ondrea Levine, authors of Who Dies?: An Investigation of Conscious Living and Conscious Dying

Are you painfully enslaved by emotional roadblocks and/or poor relationship choices? Unprocessed memories could be the problem...and EMDR could be the answer. EMDR is a powerful, scientifically validated process that has helped millions of people reclaim their freedom. In Getting Past Your Past, Francine Shapiro makes her practical methods available to the public for the first time. This is self-help at its finest. Jeffrey K. Zeig, PhD Director, The Milton Erickson Foundation Director, Evolution of Psychotherapy Conference

This self-help book is a cause for tremendous optimism. With EMDR the world finally has a therapy against the damaging effects of trauma, one that is scientifically proven to be effective and quick, low-cost, and widely applicable in a range of settings and cultural milieus. The future of the human potential'and the world--looks so much brighter for Francine Shapiro's discovery of EMDR. Rolf C. Carriere, former UN development professional and UNICEF Representative in five Asian countries, looks so much brighter for Francine Shapiro's discovery of EMDR.