Program Committee Chair Kim Isenberg introduced Rotarian and Knoxville Rotary club member Amye Cole as the speaker. Amye is an LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist) certified to practice in TN, VA, CA, and NV. Some highlights of Amye’s professional biography include providing volunteer support to first responders working at Ground Zero immediately following 9/11 during her time as an intern at the Presbyterian Church’s office at the UN in NYC, working in a boarding school and later as director of admissions in higher education, leading a study abroad trip in Nepal to deliver maternal health supplies with Rotarians to increase education and decrease infanticide, and facilitating training in Rwanda for local therapists providing mental health and wellness services to sexual assault survivors of the Rwandan genocide.
Amye described her primary therapeutic modality as being EMDR (eye movement, desensitization, and reprocessing). EMDR is used to treat maladaptive responses to trauma in individuals and groups. Practitioners use EMDR therapy to address past events that may be traumatic or disturbing and emotional disturbances such as ongoing stress and future worries like phobias, test anxiety, and anxiety related to test taking or difficult conversations and relationships. Those receiving EMDR can benefit from relief from a traumatic event, improving their ability to leave the past in the past, increasing mental and emotional capacity, and many other positive effects.
Amye provides both individual and group therapy using EMDR; however, she has more strings to her bow. She also speaks on mental health and EMDR, provides training, and teaches workshops for those interested in EMDR.