Intrusive thoughts can feel sudden, repetitive, and difficult to control. They may arrive as unwanted images, worries, memories, or impulses that feel distressing even when a person knows they are not choosing them. For many clients, understanding what is happening in the brain can be an important first step toward self-compassion and effective treatment.

What is the Triple Network Model?

The Triple Network Model is a helpful way of understanding how three large-scale brain networks interact: the Default Mode Network, the Salience Network, and the Central Executive Network. The Default Mode Network is active when the mind turns inward, including memory, reflection, and self-focused thinking. The Salience Network helps detect what feels important or threatening, including strong emotions and body sensations. The Central Executive Network supports focus, planning, problem-solving, and flexible thinking.

When these networks work together smoothly, the brain can shift between inner reflection, emotional awareness, and practical action. When a person has experienced trauma, chronic stress, anxiety, or overwhelming life events, this balance may be disrupted. The brain can become more alert to threat, more caught in self-focused loops, and less able to access calm, flexible problem-solving in the moment.

Why intrusive thoughts can feel so powerful

Intrusive thoughts often become distressing because the Salience Network assigns them a high level of importance: “Pay attention to this.” The Default Mode Network may then pull the mind into repeated searching, replaying, or meaning-making, while the Central Executive Network may struggle to step in with perspective, grounding, or choice. This can leave clients feeling trapped in a cycle of fear, doubt, shame, or mental checking.

Importantly, intrusive thoughts are not a sign of weakness or failure. They are often the mind and nervous system trying to resolve something that still feels unfinished, unsafe, or emotionally charged. Therapy can help clients understand these experiences without judgment and build a more compassionate relationship with their thoughts.

How EMDR can support clients with intrusive thoughts

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured therapy that helps the brain reprocess distressing memories, triggers, and beliefs so they feel less vivid, less emotionally intense, and more integrated. Rather than asking clients to simply “think differently,” EMDR works with the way distress is stored across memory, emotion, body sensations, and meaning.

From a Triple Network perspective, EMDR may support clients by helping the nervous system reduce threat activation, allowing painful memories or triggers to be processed with greater emotional distance and cognitive flexibility. As the emotional charge linked to a memory or belief reduces, clients may find that intrusive thoughts become less frequent, less convincing, or easier to respond to with grounded awareness.

At Artemis Psychology Services, EMDR is offered within a safe, collaborative, and personalised treatment plan. This includes careful assessment, preparation, stabilisation skills, and pacing that respects each client’s readiness. For some clients, EMDR may focus on past experiences; for others, it may begin with present-day triggers, body sensations, or distressing beliefs that keep intrusive thoughts active.

Moving toward relief

If intrusive thoughts are affecting your sleep, relationships, confidence, or sense of safety, you do not have to manage them alone. With the right support, it is possible to understand why these thoughts are occurring, reduce their intensity, and develop a steadier sense of choice and control. Artemis Psychology Services can help clients explore whether EMDR may be an appropriate part of their therapy journey.

Sources

• Menon, V. (2011). Large-scale brain networks and psychopathology: a unifying triple network model. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(10), 483–506.
• Chan, A. (2021). Reassembling Models of Reality: Theory and Clinical Practice. W. W. Norton & Company.

Cynthia — Artemis Psychology Services

The room was quiet, though my mind was loud,
When first I sat before your patient gaze.
A student then, unsure and easily bowed
By all the heavy shadows of those days.
You met my chaos with a steady grace,
And taught me how to sit within the space.

Through ten long years of shifting, uphill terrain,
You watched me stumble, study, and mature.
You held the framework tight through doubt and pain,
A psychological anchor, safe and sure.
You never gave the answers out by rote,
But taught me how to listen, think, and note.

I learned from you how fragile skin can be,
And how the deepest fractures can heal tight.
You taught me to hold space for survivors—including me—
And showed me how to sit within the silence of night.
When difficult people challenged every boundary wall,
You gave me tools to stand, and never fall.

Your curiosity became my spark,
Your boundless care, the lens through which I see.
You showed me how to navigate the dark,
In early steps of my career path, free.
But greater than the theories on the shelf,
You taught me how to value and care for myself.

I walk this path and strive each day anew,
To live up to the standard you designed.
To hold the mirror just as well as you,
With open heart and an inquiring mind.
Accept this deepest gratitude I owe—
For helping me to survive, and then grow.

In a world that often encourages us to distract ourselves from discomfort, one of the most valuable psychological skills we can develop is the ability to sit with difficult emotions without immediately trying to escape them.

At Artemis Psychology Services, we believe that emotional wellbeing is not about eliminating distress. Rather, it is about building the capacity to experience life’s full emotional range with greater awareness, resilience, and self-compassion.

One surprising ally in this process is the music of Ludwig van Beethoven.

Why Beethoven?

Beethoven’s music is often described as intensely emotional, moving through grief, struggle, anger, hope, triumph, tenderness, and acceptance. What makes his work particularly powerful from a psychological perspective is that he does not avoid emotional tension — he leans into it.

Listening attentively to Beethoven can become an exercise in emotional regulation and expanding your window of tolerance — the zone in which we can remain present, reflective, and emotionally engaged without becoming overwhelmed.

Rather than distracting ourselves from difficult feelings, Beethoven invites us to stay with them long enough to discover that they change, evolve, and eventually resolve.

The Emotional Fitness Analogy

Just as physical strength develops through progressive challenge, emotional resilience develops through gradual exposure to manageable levels of emotional discomfort.

When listening to emotionally evocative music:

• Notice what feelings arise.
• Resist the urge to immediately distract yourself.
• Observe bodily sensations.
• Stay curious rather than judgemental.
• Allow emotions to move through you.

This practice strengthens emotional flexibility and self-awareness.

A Simple Beethoven Exercise

Set aside 10–15 minutes.

Step 1: Choose a Piece

For contemplation and emotional awareness:

Moonlight Sonata — Daniel Barenboim

For resilience, determination, and overcoming adversity:

Symphony No. 5 — Deutsche Grammophon

Step 2: Listen Without Doing Anything Else

Avoid multitasking.

• No scrolling.
• No emails.
• No chores.

Simply listen.

Step 3: Observe

Ask yourself:

• What emotions do I notice?
• Where do I feel them in my body?
• What thoughts emerge?
• What memories arise?
• Which parts of the music feel uncomfortable?
• Which parts feel relieving?

Step 4: Reflect

When the music finishes, notice:

• Did the emotion stay the same?
• Did it intensify?
• Did it soften?
• Did it transform into something else?

Many people discover that emotions are more fluid than they initially believed.

What Beethoven Teaches Us About Difficult Feelings

Beethoven experienced profound personal adversity, including progressive hearing loss, chronic health problems, grief, disappointment, and social isolation.

Pain and meaning can coexist.

His compositions do not suggest that suffering should be ignored. Instead, they model what happens when we acknowledge struggle while continuing to move forward.

This mirrors what effective therapy often involves — not getting rid of difficult emotions, but developing the confidence that we can experience them safely without being controlled by them.

Building Your Window of Tolerance

If you regularly find yourself avoiding emotions through overworking, excessive screen time, alcohol, constant busyness, or other distractions, intentional music listening can be a gentle starting point.

The goal is not to feel worse.

The goal is to become more capable of:

• Recognising emotions early.
• Naming them accurately.
• Remaining present with them.
• Responding thoughtfully rather than reacting impulsively.

Over time, this can enhance emotional regulation, self-understanding, and psychological resilience.

Final Thoughts

The next time a difficult feeling arises, consider taking a seat, putting on a Beethoven recording, and allowing yourself a few moments to simply notice.

You may discover that emotions are less like permanent states and more like movements within a symphony — rising, falling, changing, and eventually resolving.

And like Beethoven’s music, even our most difficult emotional experiences can become part of a larger story of growth, meaning, and resilience.

If you would like support in developing emotional regulation skills, expanding your window of tolerance, or processing difficult life experiences, Artemis Psychology Services provides evidence-based therapy tailored to your individual needs.

“`

One of the most common things I hear as a psychologist in therapy is, “I don’t trust people.”

Sometimes this comes after a betrayal. Sometimes it follows a toxic relationship, workplace bullying, family conflict, or a traumatic experience. Occasionally, people tell me they have spent years learning not to trust because trusting others simply wasn’t safe.

What often surprises people is that beneath difficulties trusting others, there is frequently an even deeper issue: a lack of trust in themselves.

Many clients arrive believing their problem is that they trusted the wrong person. As we work together, they begin to discover that the real wound is often the belief that they cannot trust their own judgement, instincts, emotions, or decisions.

If this sounds familiar, you are not alone.

Why Trusting Yourself Can Feel So Difficult

Trust in ourselves develops through experience.

As children, we learn whether our thoughts, feelings, and needs are acknowledged or dismissed. If we grew up in environments where our emotions were criticised, minimised, ignored, or punished, we may have learned to doubt ourselves.

Trauma can also disrupt self-trust.

After a traumatic experience, many people ask themselves:

• “Why didn’t I see the warning signs?”
• “Why didn’t I leave sooner?”
• “How did I let this happen?”
• “Why can’t I get over it?”

These questions often come from a place of self-blame rather than self-compassion.

The truth is that our brains and nervous systems are designed to keep us safe. Sometimes the decisions we made during difficult periods were the best decisions available to us at the time.

Healing often begins when we stop judging our past selves and start understanding them.

The Cost of Not Trusting Yourself

When we lose trust in ourselves, we may:

• Constantly seek reassurance from others.
• Overanalyse decisions.
• Struggle with boundaries.
• Stay in unhealthy situations too long.
• Ignore our intuition.
• Become disconnected from our needs and values.
• Feel anxious about making mistakes.

Many people describe feeling stuck, second-guessing every choice and looking outside themselves for answers.

Over time, this can create exhaustion and self-doubt.

Learning to Rebuild Self-Trust

The good news is that self-trust is not something you either have or don’t have. It is a skill that can be rebuilt.

1. Start Listening to Yourself Again

Many people have spent years ignoring their internal signals.

Begin by noticing:

• What am I feeling right now?
• What do I need?
• What feels right for me?
• What feels uncomfortable?

You do not need to act immediately on every feeling, but simply acknowledging your inner experience helps rebuild connection with yourself in the present moment.

2. Keep Small Promises

Self-trust grows through consistency.

Rather than making large commitments, start small.

Perhaps you decide to take a walk, attend therapy, practice mindfulness, or establish a healthier boundary.

Each time you follow through on a commitment to yourself, your brain receives evidence that you are reliable.

Trust is built one experience at a time.

3. Learn From Mistakes Instead of Punishing Yourself

Many people believe that trusting themselves means never making mistakes.

That isn’t realistic, and it simply is not true.

Healthy self-trust means knowing that even if things don’t work out as planned, you can cope, adapt, and learn.

Mistakes are not evidence that you cannot trust yourself.

They are evidence that you are human.

4. Become Curious About Your Intuition

Intuition is often misunderstood.

It isn’t magic.

It is the brain’s ability to draw on previous experiences, patterns, and information outside conscious awareness.

When working with trauma survivors, I often see people dismiss their instincts because they have learned to prioritise other people’s opinions over their own.

Developing self-trust involves becoming curious about what your body, emotions, and experiences might be trying to tell you.

Not just relying on negative experiences from the past and forgetting the silver linings.

5. Heal the Underlying Wounds

Sometimes self-trust cannot fully develop until deeper wounds are addressed.

Experiences such as childhood adversity, relationship trauma, workplace bullying, abuse, or significant life changes can leave lasting impacts on how we view ourselves.

Therapeutic approaches such as EMDR, IFS, TF-CBT, ACT, Schema Therapy, and other trauma-informed interventions can help people process these experiences and reconnect with their strengths.

Healing is not about becoming fearless.

It is about learning that you can face life’s challenges while remaining connected to yourself.

By courage.

Trust Is Not About Certainty

One of the biggest misconceptions about trust is that it means being certain.

In reality, trust often means moving forward despite uncertainty.

You may not know exactly how something will turn out.

You may not have all the answers.

But self-trust allows you to believe that whatever happens, you will be able to respond, adapt, and keep moving forward.

A Final Thought

If you struggle with trust, I invite you to consider these questions:

“What if the person I need to trust first is myself?”

“What have I got to lose by investing in myself?”

Learning to trust yourself is not about perfection. It is about developing a compassionate relationship with your own thoughts, feelings, values, and experiences.

The more we learn to listen to ourselves, honour our needs, and recognise our resilience, the stronger self-trust becomes.

And from that foundation, healthier relationships, stronger boundaries, and greater emotional wellbeing can begin to grow.

Remember: self-trust is not something you find. It is something you build.

One small step at a time.

Adapt, Improvise and Overcome.

Cynthia

Artemis Psychology turns 6 next month! It’s hard to believe it’s six years since I was in Cairns
commencing a new job when COVID hit… The Year of the Fire Horse, the symbol of passion
and transformation. It is an excellent year to commence new beginnings, forward
movement and self-leadership What path are you going to choose for your future?

I’m based in Queensland’s Southeast and worked thru covid, in both Cairns and Brisbane,
starting Artemis Psychology Services in early 2020. Although I predominately work online, I
see clients in person and travel to Cairns regularly. I prefer a casual and friendly approach to
help you feel as comfortable as possible.

My approach is authentic, curious, and objective. I’m upfront, believing that it is important
for us both to be able to speak our truth, in a respectful and gentle way. My role, as your
therapist, is to challenge you to challenge yourself and mentor you to successfully navigate
towards your goals.

I’m open, honest and transparent. I see therapy as a two-way street; it’s like a therapeutic
dance that we engage in together. Therapy is about connecting with oneself while being
safely guided by another. Therapy represents the push-pull of connection, trust, and
attunement between us both.