Understanding EMDR Through the Matryoshka Doll Metaphor

Think of your life as a matryoshka: a nested set of dolls, each representing different layers of your experiences, emotions, sensations, and beliefs. We often focus on the outer layers —our daily thoughts, behaviours, and feelings. Yet the challenging or painful experiences you’re facing now are usually a manifestation of the most miniature dolls at the center: well-protected, but still influencing everything on the outside.

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According to Francine Shapiro’s Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, experiences of suffering or unresolved trauma can leave these “core dolls” stuck. When this happens, the brain’s ability to process and integrate painful memories becomes disrupted. As a result, you may feel overwhelmed, anxious, or emotionally stuck—even when the exact cause is hard to pinpoint.

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EMDR therapy works like gently opening these nested dolls, one by one. We start with what’s happening right now — perhaps unsettling thoughts, emotions, or sensations — and use bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, to help the brain reprocess the deeper, hidden layers of the past. This process activates the brain’s natural healing system, turning rooted memories into adaptive information. As a result, the memories are no longer tied to pain or distress; instead, they become integrated into the story of your life, carried with strength and resilience.

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In The Body Keeps the Score, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk emphasizes that painful experiences and trauma are not only stored as memories in the mind but also as emotions and sensations in the body. EMDR bridges this gap between mind and body, helping you process both the emotional and physical effects of suffering and trauma. The goal is not to dig endlessly or erase the past, but to transform the way it affects you so that your inner dolls feel lighter and more harmoniously connected to the whole. Once those inner layers integrate, the outer layers can begin to shift. You may notice anxiety loosening its grip, self-doubt softening, and a greater sense of grounding in your daily life.

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The purpose of EMDR is not to erase pain or eliminate your history, but to expand your capacity to feel and to relate differently to what once felt automatic or limiting. Through this processing, memories stop occupying a place that constrains or dysregulates you and begin to settle into a wider, more compassionate, and more available inner space.

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From this place, freedom comes not from making the past disappear, but from our ability to hold ourselves in front of it—to inhabit the body as our own sovereign, sacred territory. A territory where feeling ourselves and being with ourselves becomes a safe refuge, and where even difficult memories can transform into guidance, meaning, and connection.

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With EMDR, we do not push away or discard any part of your story. Instead, we reconnect you with your layers of strength, resilience, and beauty, so you can carry your past from a place of greater peace, presence, and agency, rather than from the pain that once limited you.