Logbook – EMDR PEPS practice
When the nervous system lives with the alarm switched on
With generalized anxiety, I often picture a house whose alarm went off one day... and was never reset. The storm has passed. The walls are still standing. The doors are locked. But the alarm continues to scream, as if the danger were still there.
In EMDR teleconsultation, patients rarely talk about specific fears. Instead, they describe a background noise, constant tension, a body that remains on alert. Like a pressure cooker on the stove, with a stuck valve and constant pressure.
In my EMDR PEPSpractice, this type of anxiety is never approached from a single angle. It is observed from several constantly interconnected levels of interpretation.
It is this articulation that allows us to go beyond simply reducing symptoms, including in the context of international video consultations.
What is generalized anxiety disorder?
An engine that runs without ever idling
Generalized anxiety is not excessive thinking. It is a survival mechanism stuck in overdrive.
At some point—often very early on—the nervous system learned that letting its guard down was risky. So it anticipates everything. It scans everything. It plans for everything. The problem is that it never learned to stop.
In practice, we always see the same mechanism at work: the brain confuses the possibility of danger with its actual presence. It's like a GPS that constantly recalculates an accident that never happens.
The symptoms then become the dashboard indicators:
- recurring thoughts
- muscles under tension
- hibernation
- vague feeling that "it's going to fall"
Training therapists taught me one essential thing: if you only read anxiety with your head, you miss what's going on under the hood.
If you live with diffuse anxiety and constant alertness, an initial consultation can help determine whether EMDR via video chat is right for you.
The role of EMDR in reducing anxiety
Unlock the mechanism rather than pushing for calm
EMDR does not seek to calm the pressure cooker by pressing down on it. It seeks to release the valve.
In generalized anxiety, we do not work against the anxiety, but with what it is clumsily trying to protect. EMDR acts where fear has become ingrained: in reflexes, not in reasoning.
The work then consists of:
- spot the gears that are starting up again in the present
- identify previous survival settings
- reprocess memories that keep the pressure on
This work is constantly refined through contact with the field and clinical analysis. Each case becomes both an opportunity for observation and a chance to adjust the map.
Do not force point B. Remove the wedges blocking point A.
EMDR via video conferencing: a clinical control room, not a backup solution
EMDR teleconsultation is often perceived as a compromise. In my practice, it is more like an advanced control room.
With video, we work directly in the patient's home, where the alarm actually goes off. Not on the doorstep. Not in a neutral setting. The nervous system doesn't have to play a role. It's already at home.
This framework allows for detailed observation:
- micro-body reactions
- real-time emotional adjustments
- spontaneous regulatory responses
This precision makes it possible to perform EMDR work via video conferencing in a reliable and tailored manner, even in an international context.
Example of international support: When the sky has been overcast since childhood
For example, I am treating a Norwegian patient with EMDR via video chat. She has suffered from generalized anxiety since childhood. No major storms. No spectacular events. Just a permanently gray sky, with the certainty that bad weather will eventually arrive.
His words were simple:
"I don't know what... but I know it's going to happen."
In this type of profile, fear is like a stationary storm cloud. It doesn't always rain. But the sky never clears up.
The work was not done on scenarios, but on internal pressures: waiting, contraction, anticipation.
This clinical reading allows you to avoid jumping to conclusions too quickly and to target accurately.
The solution? Unfold fear rather than confront it head-on.
Faced with these long-standing anxieties, trying to reassure people is like shouting "everything's fine" at a fire alarm. It doesn't understand language.
EMDR work involves unfolding fear, layer by layer, like dismantling an old mechanism to understand why it still malfunctions.
You don't eliminate fear. You take away its command post.
Preparing for your first session
With a pressure cooker that has been under pressure for years, brutality is a mistake. Rhythm is a therapeutic tool.
The first session is used to:
- mapping anxiety circuits
- identify triggers
- install supports
You don't open the valve all at once. You teach the system that it can safely descend.
Conclusion
When the system stops confusing clouds with storms
EMDR via video conferencing allows us to work on generalized anxiety at the level where it actually exists: in survival mechanisms. But it is the constant interaction between practice, training, and research that allows us to go further, more deeply, and more sustainably.
When the nervous system finally understands that the cloud is not the storm, the alarm can be turned off. And calm is no longer a struggle, but a rediscovered basic state.
Would you like to find out if EMDR en visio is right for you? Let's have a chat together.
