Randi Rotwein-Pivnick
Therapist Randi Rotwein-Pivnick, LMFT, previously would conduct her therapy sessions while walking with clients on the beach in California.
“I found that by getting the person outdoors and moving, concerns and anxieties were more easily overcome,” she said. “It was the combination of mental and physical energies working together.”
Randi doesn’t do any walking around now in our Arizona summertime, but she does get patients to move their thoughts by employing therapies like EMDR with her counseling. “My goal is to help others achieve their goals or to improve the quality of their lives, remove anxieties and the feeling of being stuck,” she explained. “EMDR is an actual physical stimulation of the brain that helps remove or lessen anxiety and the negative thought processes.”
What is EMDR and how does it work? WebMD.com describes EMDR as, “Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, a fairly new, nontraditional type of psychotherapy. It’s growing in popularity, particularly for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, which often occurs after experiences, such as military combat, physical assault, rape or car accidents.”
Developed by Francine Shapiro in the early 90s, EMDR originally involved the therapist moving her fingers in front of the patient’s face and asking him to follow the movement while recalling a disturbing event and the emotion and body sensations involved. Eventually, alternatives to finger movements, such as hand tapping, headphone sounds and more recently, hand-held devices with buzzing frequencies that caused bilateral stimulation of the brain’s fight or flight limbic system, were found to weaken the effect of negative emotions. Gradually, the therapist can guide the patient to shift his thoughts to more pleasant ones, replacing the anxiety with a positive experience.
“Before, during and after each EMDR treatment, I ask you to rate your level of distress in the hope your disturbing memories will become less disabling,” Randi said. “Based on the degree of trauma, it may take several sessions to completely resolve the anxiety. A lot of our anxieties are formed through childhood trauma or conditioning, and addressing them with EMDR therapy can free you to be who you want to be today.”
Licensed in both California and Arizona, Randi has practiced for more than 20 years. Before becoming a therapist, Randi had acquired a bachelor’s degree in special education and another in exercise science. It was a natural transition to combine these with a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy, with a focus on mind/body connection.
“I also find this concept of moving the body to move the thoughts to be a great relief for depression, in which body and mind are very much connected. Although it’s the last thing a depressed person may feel like doing, if you are depressed or in a really bad mood, the best thing you can do is get up, get out and push yourself to go for a walk or do something physical.”
Randi Rotwein-Pivnick’s office is located at 3303 E. Baseline Road, Building 6, Suite 114, in Gilbert. For information or appointments, send an email to Emotion4You@aol.com, or call (480) 707-8291.