More Information on EMDR

Note: The information below on EMDR is largely courtesy of the EMDR International Association and outlines the standard EMDR protocol. While this is a helpful framework to understand, it’s important to once again invoke my belief that variation is the norm. For some, the standard protocol is enough to bring meaningful relief and lasting change. For others, deeper healing requires flexibility, adaptations, and/or additional elements. That’s why I use a blended approach—tailored to the unique needs of each person I work with.

  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a highly researched, evidence-based psychotherapy that helps people heal from trauma and other distressing life experiences—including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorders.

    EMDR is recognized as an effective treatment by leading organizations such as:

    • American Psychiatric Association

    • American Psychological Association

    • World Health Organization

    • U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs / Department of Defense

    • National Alliance on Mental Illness

    • International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies

    • U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence

    • The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

  • EMDR does not require talking in detail about your experiences. Instead, it helps the brain process stuck or unprocessed memories so you can respond to the present, not the past. Sessions use bilateral stimulation (e.g. eye movements, tones, tapping, gentle pulses) while you focus on a distressing memory. This supports your brain’s natural ability to heal, without being overwhelmed. For many, EMDR brings relief in fewer sessions compared to traditional talk therapy. EMDR can be done in person or virtually, with a properly trained, licensed clinician.

  • Our brains are wired to recover from trauma—but sometimes, after overwhelming experiences, that natural healing process gets blocked. When this happens, we may feel “stuck,” reactive, or like we’re reliving the past. EMDR helps “unfreeze” those memories. It calms the brain’s fight, flight, or freeze response and allows the memory to be stored in a more adaptive way. You’ll still remember the experience, but it will no longer feel as emotionally charged or disruptive.

  • Once we’ve completed your intake and created a treatment plan, we’ll identify specific memories to focus on. Together, we’ll explore the image, emotions, body sensations, and beliefs connected to these memories. While you hold the memory in mind, you’ll be guided through sets of bilateral stimulation (e.g. eye movements, tones, tapping, gentle pulses). You simply notice what comes up—thoughts, feelings, sensations, images—without needing to analyze or explain them. The memory becomes less distressing over time, and old beliefs are updated or replaced with more adaptive ones. You are always in control of the pace of processing. Sessions close with grounding, and gains made are re-evaluated in the next session.

  • 1. History & Treatment Planning

    Explore the client’s history and develop a treatment plan with attention to traumatic events to reprocess. Assess the client’s internal and external resources.

    2. Preparation

    Strengthen the therapeutic alliance. Discuss the EMDR therapy process and set expectations. Address the client’s concerns and questions. Prepare clients with specific techniques to cope with emotional disturbance that may arise.

    3. Assessment

    Identify the event to reprocess including images, beliefs, feelings, and sensations. Establish initial measures as baselines before reprocessing: Subjective Units of Distress (SUD) and Validity of Cognition (VOC).

    4. Desensitization

    Begin eye movements, taps, or other dual attention bilateral stimulation while the client thinks about the traumatic event. Focus on decreasing the client’s SUD until it reduces to zero (or 1 if appropriate) allowing new thoughts, images, feelings, and sensations to emerge.

    5. Installation

    Strengthen a positive belief that the client wants to associate with the target event until it feels completely true.

    6. Body Scan

    The client is asked to hold in mind both the target event and the positive belief while scanning the body from head to toe. Process any lingering disturbance from the body with dual attention bilateral stimulation.

    7. Closure

    Assist the client to return to a state of calm in the present moment whether the reprocessing is complete or not. Reprocessing of an event is complete when the client feels neutral about it (SUD=0), the positive belief feels completely true (VOC=7), and the body is completely clear of disturbance.

    8. Reevaluation

    At the beginning of each new session, therapist and client discuss recently processed memories to ensure that distress is still low and positive cognition is strong. Future targets and directions for continued treatment are determined.

More Information on Other Experiential Modalities

  • Brainspotting is a powerful, brain-body based therapy designed to help people process and release trauma, emotional pain, and other deeply rooted experiences. By identifying specific eye positions—or “brainspots”—that correlate with areas of stored distress in the brain and body, Brainspotting allows for deep processing beneath conscious awareness. This approach supports the nervous system in healing at its own pace, often leading to lasting relief from symptoms like anxiety, overwhelm, and emotional blocks. Brainspotting can be especially effective for trauma, performance anxiety, and unresolved issues that may not fully respond to traditional talk therapy.

  • Ego state therapy is a therapeutic approach that helps clients explore and connect with different “parts” of themselves—also known as inner states or subpersonalities. These parts often develop in response to life experiences, particularly trauma, and can carry specific emotions, beliefs, or roles. By identifying, understanding, and building compassion toward these inner parts, clients can reduce internal conflict, increase self-awareness, and foster emotional healing. Ego state therapy is especially helpful for complex trauma, attachment wounds, and patterns that feel stuck or overwhelming.

  • Coherence Therapy is a deeply experiential, insight-oriented approach that helps uncover and transform the unconscious emotional learnings driving unwanted patterns, symptoms, or beliefs. Rather than focusing on symptom management, this method aims to dissolve the root causes of distress by bringing hidden emotional truths into awareness—where they can be felt, understood, and reprocessed. Clients often experience lasting change as previously conflicting parts of the self come into alignment, restoring a sense of internal coherence and relief.

  • Polyvagal Theory (PVT) explains how our nervous system responds to safety, connection, and threat—and how these responses shape our emotions, behaviors, and relationships. Knowing how it works can help someone better manage stress, understand their reactions, and build greater emotional flexibility and resilience.

    A few key concepts:

    • Wired to Connect: We’re born with a biological need for connection. As infants, we rely on caregivers to help us regulate our emotions. Over time, we learn to self-soothe—but no matter our age, co-regulation through supportive relationships remains essential for well-being.

    • Your Body’s Alarm System: The autonomic nervous system (ANS) is our internal surveillance system, always scanning for safety or danger. It does this through a process called neuroception—a kind of unconscious listening that comes before conscious awareness (i.e. perception). This is why our reactions often happen before we can make sense of them and is captured in the phrase “story follows state.”

    • A Hierarchy of Survival: The ANS has evolved over hundreds of millions of years and functions in a predictable hierarchy—moving between states of connection, fight/flight, and shutdown. These responses aren’t random; they’re your body’s built-in ways of trying to keep you safe.

    With awareness and practice, autonomic response patterns can be shifted, which in turn alters the stories we hold about ourselves, others, and the world. PVT shows that change is possible—and that healing begins with helping the nervous system feel safe.

  • Somatic psychology is a body-based approach to healing that recognizes the nervous system and physical body as essential parts of emotional and psychological well-being. Rather than focusing solely on thoughts or insight, somatic methods invite clients to tune into sensations, breath, posture, and movement as pathways for processing stress, trauma, and emotion.

    This approach supports nervous system regulation, builds awareness of internal states, and helps restore a sense of safety and connection. Somatic methods are especially effective for trauma, anxiety, and chronic stress, and can be gently integrated into sessions at a pace that feels right for each person.