Observed Experiential Integration Therapy | OEI Therapy – Understanding Why OEI Therapy Works

Do you feel like you’re stuck in the past, as if your body and mind are still back there living traumatic experiences now?

Observed Experiential Integration (OEI) therapy offers a path to healing so you can move forward. This innovative neuroscience-based approach combines elements of psychotherapy, body-based therapies, neurophysiology, EMDR, and mindfulness to resolve difficult emotions and dissociation, and heal trauma,

What is Observed Experiential Integration Therapy (OEI) Therapy?

OEI therapy is a body-based trauma processing therapy that evolved from EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). OEI utilizes the visual pathways to integrate both brain hemispheres, aiming to reduce anxiety and trauma symptoms by using the power of observation.

OEI is considered one of the quicker therapies for resolving trauma with lasting effects that reduce trauma long-term.

What Can OEI Therapy Help With?

OEI therapy has shown promise in addressing a wide range of psychological and emotional challenges. It is particularly effective for:

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) by providing a supportive environment to process past experiences
• Anxiety and depression
• Phobias
• Self-esteem and self-worth issues
• Body dysmorphia
• Eating disorders
• Negative self-talk and self-criticism
• Relationship Issues and conflicts
• Substance use and compulsions
• Childhood trauma and abuse
• Emotional regulation difficulties
• Stress management
• Dissociative disorders and fragmented experiences
• Abusive or toxic relationships
• Amnesia – forgetting periods of time, events or personal information

The Impact of Trauma

Traumatic experiences can disrupt the natural functioning of our minds and bodies, often leading to feelings of being “stuck” in the past. Trauma can manifest in many ways including:

✔️ Feeling emotionally overwhelmed or stuck
✔️ Chronic anxiety or hypervigilance
✔️ Nervous system dysregulation, such as anxiety and hypervigilance
✔️ Emotional difficulties, such as depression, intense mood swings, and low self-esteem
✔️ Negative self-talk and self-criticism
✔️ Relationship issues and interpersonal conflicts.
✔️ Dissociation, or a sense of disconnection from your body
✔️ Physical symptoms, as trauma is often stored in the body
✔️ Headaches, nausea, numbness, pain or numbness, forgetfulness

Trauma can hinder daily life, making it difficult to feel safe, connected, and present.

OEI Therapy: The Most Gentle Path to Healing and Integration

Trauma can leave a lasting impact on our lives, affecting your nervous system, emotions, and overall well-being.

If you’ve been in traditional talk therapy for months or years, and it is just not making the difference you would like to see in your present experience trauma, Observed Experiential Integration (OEI) Therapy offer a safe, gentle, effective path to healing.

This approach integrates elements of psychotherapy, body-based therapies, neurophysiology, and mindfulness to help individuals overcome psychological and emotional challenges.

OEI Therapy is a holistic approach to healing developed by Dr. Rick Bradshaw and Audrey Cook that combines elements of psychotherapy, body-based therapies, neurophysiology, and mindfulness practices. OEI is a somatic-based trauma processing therapy based in neuroscience that works to address the impacts of trauma on both the brain and body.

It evolved out of EMDR therapy and utilizes the visual pathways to integrate both brain hemispheres. The core of OEI lies in the power of observation, specifically the observation of subtle eye movements that occur when traumatic memories are activated.

Unlike EMDR, you don’t have to talk about your trauma. These memories can stay subconscious and OEI can work with them gently and safely, without requiring my clients to revivify their experience and relive them by talking about them.

How OEI Works

During OEI therapy, clients follow a visual stimulus while the therapist observes their eye movements for patterns. These eye movements are indicative of the brain’s trauma and survival response being activated.

The client may cover and uncover one eye at a time while following the therapist’s fingers, which promotes integration between the two brain hemispheres.

Specific movements through the visual field are used to stimulate the brain and facilitate the processing of traumatic memories, without having to talk about them. This process can help clients reduce the deep-seated survival response and and help heal the emotional reactivity to their memories in a safe and gentle way.

OEI enables clients to process emotions in the most gentle and safe way without having to recall and talk about traumatic experiences. We can help you treat painful memories or emotions while maintaining a felt sense of safety and support.

Principles of OEI Therapy

OEI therapy is founded on gently and safely reducing trauma using three core principles:

1. Observation

Client observation: Clients are encouraged to notice their thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations, shifting focus from the midbrain to the medial prefrontal cortices. OEI can even help individuals who have trouble feeling their bodies and have disconnected and dissociated from themselves and their body.

Clients cover one eye and observe how their perceptions, emotions, and body states may change depending on which eye is covered. Clients safely notice their symptoms of trauma in tiny amounts and processing feelings of being stuck and triggered through this integration. The outcome is reduction in emotional reactivity, and feeling trapped in the past. Integration enables clients to process the past so they can move forward into a life that is happier and more fulfilling.

Therapist observation: Therapists closely observe subtle changes in clients’ facial expressions, eye movements, and body postures. This helps the client become more integrated, and less stuck and emotionally reactive.

2. Experiential

The aim of experiential therapy is to reduce triggers, emotional reactivity, and any dissociation or discomfort. OEI can put the past into the past and resolve the painful memories so you can move forward to create a life you love.

OEI incorporates different experiential techniques using the present moment to resolve deep-seated emotions from past trauma, to process “unfinished business,” by attending to subtle affective, somatic, perceptual, and cognitive states in the most safe and gentle supportive way.

3. Integration

OEI integrates dissociated traumatic material that was beyond the client’s awareness and ability to process but is affecting their daily lives. Integration of past trauma enables clients to reduce negative impacts of trauma so they can move forward with freedom and possibiity.

When traumatic experiences are not integrated, the past can continue to influence a person’s reactions and behaviors, leading to heightened emotional reactivity and a sense of feeling trapped in the past, unable to get unstuck.

There is neuroscience evidence of integration of brain hemispheres through visual pathways with OEI. This integration enables the client to process their experiences of being constantly triggered and feeling stuck in the past so they can move forward on a new empowered path.

During therapy, clients gently and safely integrate emotions, cognitions, somatic sensations, and visual perceptions, which leads to feeling safe and free when they are no longer feeling stuck or triggered by the past in the present moment. This freedom helps my clients move forward to a future filled with possibilities.

Ultimately, OEI helps individuals integrate fragmented experiences where they feel conflicted, confused, triggered, and stuck so they have new choices in their daily lives that lead to empowering outcomes.

By integrating these three principles, OEI offers a powerful pathway to healing from trauma and creating a more fulfilling life.

As I have said before logic can’t solve emotions. It’s ok if you don’t understand OEI. More information isn’t the thing that will get you across the line, free from the past.

You need to have an experience that leaves you changed and inspired to create a whole new path that leads to an entirely new future. Understanding doesn’t have anything to do with it. You can receive all the benefits of OEI, even if you don’t understand it.

Experience the freedom that comes from OEI therapy, even if you’ve tried everything to resolve your trauma and nothing has worked. For more info on Accelerated OEI Therapy – click here.

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