How EMDR Therapy Helped My Client Gain Clarity
Sometimes, the realisation from EMDR sessions shows up outside the therapy room, like it did for my client on a trip to Kashmir. The work we did with EMDR helped my client experience clarity, boundary setting, and emotional expression.
THERAPY
Anonymous Client Review
7/24/20252 min read
I hope you’re doing great. Recently, I’ve been on a trip to Kashmir (Srinagar and Gulmarg), as I have told you in the last session, and I got back the day before yesterday. I remember that I asked you whether I can share my thoughts on emotional resistance/resilience, or say boundary setting. So, I always loved flowers and my favourite one is ‘Lilly of the valley’, if you look at them(see the attachment) -- they’re bell-shaped flowers and looks like “jhumka”. I recently discovered that there nature to bow down wasn’t just accidental but it’s choreographed by natured itself. Primarily, it is due to evolutionary adoption but physics plays a role too. These flowers exhibits phototropism, means they need sunlight to grow. Their stem and leaves orient themselves to maximise their exposure to sunlight. Its nothing new, sunflowers also does the same but these flower themselves don’t turn upward like sunflower rather they droop. It’s because these flowers only thrive in dark forests or shaded forest floors and sunlight angle changes throughout the day. Hence, by bowing down gracefully, they prevent themselves from sun damage to their delicate petals while ensuring leaves and stem gets the enough light. However, this is not the only reason for their bending, as their flowers are generally more heavy than their thin stem—this way it also them to protect their reproductive organs from rainwater, which could damage the pollen. Interestingly, bowing down also helps pollinators (especially bees) in pollination, as if flowers bow down to invite them, offering nectar as gift.
This majorly highlights to me that, nature has a unique way of hiding deep intelligence in the simplest things. In this case, “Lily of the Valley” follows such precise evolutionary logic while still looking like it’s paying homage to the very force that sustains it. It’s like a quiet, graceful negotiation with nature rather than an act of greed.
It teaches me that self-care doesn’t have to come at the cost of generosity.
It also shows the importance of resilience over exhaustion, like if flower stood up towards light, it would be exposed to sunlight and harm itself. Rather than it choose to be resilient by bowing down gracefully.
And what a privilege it was — on my trip to Gulmarg. I visited fields of blooming Yellow Foxgloves, Lady's glove, Lupins and Daffodils. The Yellow Foxgloves arrested me completely. At first, I mistook them for Lily of Valley as they look alike. But the moment I approached and touched them, I realized my mistake: they weren’t poisonous, unlike the delicate Lily of the Valley, which are poisonous and rarely grows so freely in open fields. Still, I was enchanted. I felt like a child again, wide-eyed with wonder at the sight of them.
I don’t know something happened to me internally after watching them bloom. The pain which felt like someone has put needle in centre of my head, but after watching them the pain felt very sweet and numb, I don’t know how to express it. But the whole trip from Lakes, Mountains, Forts to Flower Fields has changed something in me and it is positive effect, feels much like something has rewired within me. Now, I take everything positively, it made me more content. Something fundamental shifted, and though I can’t name it, I know it is good.