EMDR Therapy and Trauma Healing

Working with you to help your brain get unstuck and find healing.

Your brain feels stuck in patterns that do not serve you but you do not know how to change the pattern.

Does it feel like your brain is stuck on feelings, thoughts, or beliefs about yourself that you know aren’t true, but feel like they are? Or maybe you feel cut off and distant from other people, like there is an invisible barrier to authentic connections that you can’t quite get to change. Or maybe you find yourself feeling “on edge” and anxious much of the time or feel like you are reliving a traumatic event or experience that happened to you.

You might have tried talk therapy before and found that it wasn't quite as helpful as you hoped. Or maybe it was helpful but there is just a part of your brain that still feels stuck in a place of hurt and pain.

You are ready to change the patterns and want to find healing and peace. You just need a little bit of help to get there.

EMDR Therapy can help to rewire the pathways in your brain to get you unstuck from feelings, beliefs, and patterns that do not serve you.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy is a model that is designed to help people find healing from emotional distress and upsetting symptoms that are connected to a traumatic experience they have experienced. Traumatic experiences can be things like a life-threatening situation . However, more common experiences such as being bullied or teased, experiencing a failed relationship, or difficult relationships with parents growing up can also lead to ongoing traumatic symptoms that impact our wellbeing and ability to engage in our world and relationships in the ways that we would like.

EMDR Therapy is effective for many types of traumatic events and experiences including: 

  • Negative beliefs about yourself

  • Disturbing memories

  • Anxiety and Depression

  • Fears or Phobias

  • Low-self esteem

  • Social or performance anxiety

  • Chronic illness or pain

  • Complicated grief

  • Sudden loss

  • Abusive relationships

  • Childhood abuse

  • Traumas at work (such as for first responders, medical providers, or military members)

  • Car accidents

How EMDR Works

EMDR therapy is an evidence-based psychotherapy model with over 35 years of research that uses the brain's natural information processing system to create healing from unresolved life experiences that create negative beliefs about oneself, anxiety, depression, or PTSD. Research demonstrates that EMDR is a safe and effective treatment approach and can often help to create change faster than other approaches to trauma therapy. 

Our brains naturally work towards healing, just as our bodies do. If you were to cut yourself, your body would instantly begin working towards healing the injured area. However, if you had dirt in the wound, it might get infected or otherwise impede the body's ability to heal. Once the wound is cleaned and the dirt removed, the body is once again to resume the natural healing process. 

EMDR therapy works in a similar way. The brain naturally wants to create healing but sometimes, when we have experienced a traumatic event or series of events, the thoughts, emotions, and beliefs associated with the event get stuck in the brain. This leads to these thoughts and beliefs being triggered in the present day, even though the event happened in the past. 

EMDR uses a series of eight steps, each with its own set of protocols and procedures, to help the brain get “unstuck” and allows the brain to resume the natural process of healing and processing of information. These protocols use bilateral stimulation - which can be through eye tracking, sound, or touch - to desensitize the neural pathways which create the unhelpful responses and to rely on new, positive neural pathways with positive and effective supports. 


What to Expect with EMDR

Though EMDR has a set of protocols and procedures, each situation is unique and I customize the experience to the individual needs of each person I work with. When we first meet, we will start with building your resources and skills to help you feel prepared and confident to start the EMDR process. I also focus on helping ensure that you feel safe, known and supported as we begin this process. We will work together to identify the areas where you feel stuck and the changes that you would like to see as a result of our work together. We will then work together to help your brain build the new connections that will allow you to experience the healing that you deserve to have.

  • Help you to find healing and get unstuck from patterns of thoughts and behaviors that don’t serve you. 

  • Allow your brain to store traumatic memories in a way that allows them to stay in the past instead of impacting your present. 

  • Reduce feelings of anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem.

EMDR Therapy Can:

“Sometimes you don’t know the weight of something you’ve been carrying until you feel the weight of its release”. - Unknown

Frequently Asked Questions about EMDR Therapy

  • Yes! EMDR has been shown to be very effective virtually as well as in person. For virtual sessions, it is best if you can be in a space that is safe and private as well as have a screen large enough for you to follow the eye movements (so not a cell phone).

  • No, you have full control of how much you would like to share with me which means you can tell me as much or as little as you want.. I will ask some questions related to the history of the experiences you have had to help create a customized plan for you but you do not have to share the details of what you experience. During the bilateral stimulation, you remain fully conscious and get to decide how much you share of the details.

  • EMDR therapy, just like with any psychotherapy, can create a temporary increase in distress as some unresolved memories may emerge or you may have a reaction, such as a higher level of emotional or physical sensation during a session than was anticipated. Before we start the desensitization phase, I will work with you so that you have the emotional, physical, and mental coping skills to help navigate these potential situations and you are always in control to stop at any time.

You can change the patterns that are keeping you stuck.

Find out how to help get your brain unstuck.