As a seasoned therapist with extensive experience exploring the role of energy in healing, Susan Brunson, MSW, LICSW, integrates both modern neuroscience and ancient energy concepts into her practice. With a background spanning outpatient, inpatient and residential treatment, she began studying the intersection of quantum physics and healing more than 20 years ago. Today, two of her primary tools for helping individuals decrease negative thoughts, feelings and body sensations—and to heal trauma and PTSD—are Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT/Tapping) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.
“Emotional Freedom Techniques, or Tapping, is a powerful yet gentle self-help tool,” Brunson explains. “By tapping on energy pathways on the body while speaking and working through a negative emotion or situation, people can create measurable shifts in their physiology and mood.”
EFT is easy to learn and quick to use, often bringing relief in 10 minutes or less. Brunson has seen remarkable results: one client who experienced panic attacks and nightmares from childhood trauma learned to use tapping and soon slept peacefully again, even calming herself quietly at work when stress arose. Another client who came in with deep depression and suicidal thoughts felt a noticeable lift after a single 45-minute tapping session. “The changes can be immediate,” says Brunson. “People feel lighter, calmer and more in control.”
While EFT can be practiced independently, EMDR therapy is a specialized, neuroscience-based talk therapy that must be facilitated by a qualified EMDR-trained therapist. Using a bilateral stimulation technique, the therapist helps clients process traumatic or painful memories so the brain can reclassify them as past experiences.
Brunson recalls several striking “one-hit wonder” stories of healing. A five-year-old boy developed severe anxiety and fear of storms after tornadoes struck his town. After a single EMDR session, his mother reported that his symptoms disappeared completely. Another client, a 27-year-old man traumatized by a difficult hospital stay, overcame his PTSD within weeks. A woman who had survived a sexual assault also experienced full relief after just one EMDR session. “It doesn’t matter how recent or long ago the trauma happened, or how big or small it was,” Brunson notes. “Sometimes the healing is truly miraculous.”
She emphasizes that the power of EMDR lies in the brain’s own ability to heal. “It’s the EMDR brain science and the client’s mind that heal them,” she says. “I’m simply their guide.”
Extensive research on EMDR therapy has been conducted over the past 35 years, and more information is available at the EMDR Institute online.Brunson maintains a private therapy practice in Alabama and Texas through Talkspace’s online teletherapy platform and collaborates with Rev. Dr. Dallas Teague Snider in Alabama, offering Restoring the Foundations Agape spiritual healings and Spiritual Energy Healing Retreats that weave together therapeutic and spiritual modalities for deep, holistic transformation. To connect, call 205-641-9869
