EP 143 – How EMDR Heals Trauma, PTSD, and Addiction with Paul SchulteEP 143 – How EMDR Heals Trauma, PTSD, and Addiction with Paul Schulte
Kaleidoscope of Possibilities
Dr. Adriana Popescu and Paul Schulte talk about why trauma and PTSD are so intertwined with addiction, and how EMDR can help process deep wounds that block sobriety. The conversation contrasts traditional talk therapy with EMDR and looks at how changing trauma responses may open the door to post-traumatic growth.
45:44•4 Nov 2026
EMDR, Trauma and Sobriety: Paul Schulte on Healing What Keeps You Stuck
Episode Overview
- Unresolved trauma and PTSD are presented as major barriers to sustaining long-term sobriety.
- Conventional advice to postpone trauma therapy until months of sobriety is questioned as unrealistic for many people.
- EMDR is described as integrating time, place and event with story and emotion, helping reduce fear and bodily anxiety in a relatively short time frame.
- Talk of triggers often reflects therapists’ unworked trauma, highlighting the need for practitioners to do their own healing.
- EMDR can support post-traumatic growth by loosening beliefs like “I’m a coward” and creating space for pity and condolence instead of lifelong rage.
“They're living with their trigger. They're a walking, talking trigger. They're living with their trauma 24-7.”
How do people find strength in their journey to sobriety? This episode centres on that question as Dr. Adriana Popescu talks with Paul Schulte, a retired banker turned alcohol and drug counsellor and EMDR therapist, who is over two decades sober and deeply familiar with trauma and addiction in his own life and family.
You’ll hear Paul describe growing up in a large, alcoholic family marked by his father’s undiagnosed wartime PTSD, and how grief, rage and heavy drinking shaped his early years. He shares how he walked away from a high-powered banking career, got sober through 12-step meetings in Los Angeles, and retrained in education, addiction treatment and EMDR after realising he was “completely empty on the inside”.
He contrasts talk therapy, which speaks to the frontal cortex, with EMDR, which works with the brain’s emotional systems and somatic memory: “What we do with EMDR is we're putting time and space and event together with story and narrative in a way that maybe we never have in our lives.” Paul and Adriana challenge conventional addiction treatment that delays trauma work until months of sobriety, arguing that many people are “a walking, talking trigger” and simply can’t stay sober without addressing deep wounds.
The heart of the conversation is EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) and why Paul thinks it can be a game changer for trauma, PTSD and addiction. They also highlight how therapists’ own unresolved trauma can block clients from going where they need to go.
Throughout, Paul brings in experiences with LGBTQ+ clients, soldiers, refugees and people leaving narcissistic relationships or cults, showing how EMDR can reduce bodily anxiety, shift beliefs like “I’m a coward”, and open space for grief and post-traumatic growth. If unresolved trauma and PTSD keep tripping you up in recovery, could EMDR be the missing piece you’ve been waiting for?
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