The EMDR Workbook for Trauma and PTSD by Boardman Megan;Schwartz Arielle;

Author:Boardman, Megan;Schwartz, Arielle;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Published: 2023-04-06T14:20:25+00:00

Core Beliefs

Much of your identity and self-worth comes from early interactions with others. Your relationships with others in the world around you lead to forming negative or positive beliefs about yourself, which we refer to as “core beliefs.” We also form core beliefs as we encounter pivotal events in our lives. If you tend to have negative beliefs about yourself, reprocessing them, or rediscovering a new meaning, will be pivotal in your healing. As you learn to adopt more positive ways of thinking about yourself, you will begin to encode new adaptive information in your brain’s processing center and expand your once held limiting views.

You have probably spent a lot of time trying to understand and make meaning of the “whys” in your life. Why did this happen to me? Why did I have to suffer? Why can’t I control my emotions? Why do people hurt me? Why do I feel more intensely than others? Why was I left? The list could continue. You might be searching for the meaning behind the pain and confusing circumstances you have encountered in your life, hoping that with this understanding you will finally be able to free some of the pain and shame that you carry.

Within you lie deeply rooted values, feelings, emotions, and beliefs that guide and shape the way in which you operate and exist in your world. As mentioned above, your belief system often forms in the early years of life and is strongly influenced by your own personal experiences, interpretations, and conclusions drawn, as well as what the people closest to you told you to be true. These early experiences play a major role in shaping the beliefs that you will form around yourself, others, and the world around you.

Your brain assigns meaning and significance to your relationships, events, and circumstances that you face. For example, if you graduate from high school, your brain may associate this with accomplishment and positive regard for yourself. However, perhaps you don’t graduate and instead you receive your GED. Based on the messages you received about the importance of education, your brain may believe this to be a disappointing experience. The meaning that we assign to things contributes to our set of core beliefs. These beliefs become the inner dialogue that we tell ourselves regarding our limits, capabilities, and worth.

Negative Core Beliefs

Part of the EMDR framework involves identifying the negative beliefs you carry today because of the past events you have faced in your life. Negative beliefs are the interpretations you made about yourself at the time trauma occurred. For example, let’s say your spouse had an ongoing affair during your marriage. When you learned of this occurring, perhaps you assigned a meaning about yourself (like I am unlovable). This belief that you formed because of your spouse’s affair may still impact you today. Identifying your faulty, negative interpretations of yourself from your past traumatic experiences will help you identify parts of your life that need to be reprocessed or explored as a means to assist in changing these negative core beliefs that you hold about yourself.

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