EMDR Treatment

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Treatment for Adults and Teens who have experienced trauma

Mountainous range

I can help you process and heal from past negative experiences that you think might be adversely affecting the way you experience the present.

Trauma can be thought of as an identifiable experience such as:

  • physical or sexual violence

  • gun violence

  • natural disasters

  • active combat in the military, among others.

River bank with rocks

Other ways people experience trauma include:

  • experiencing abuse or neglect

  • family conflict

  • experiencing harsh, critical or restrictive parenting

  • failures in school

  • bullying or peer humiliation

  • being ostracized or excluded

  • separation or a death

All of these experiences can have a lasting negative impact on the way we see ourselves, how we respond to people and situations in the present, how we manage our emotions, and can result in difficulty finding happiness.

Woods with a muddy river

  • Do you sometimes find that in interactions with certain other people, you find yourself feeling bad, in ways that you remember feeling as a kid?

  • Do you sometimes recognize that your inner critic takes over in a negative way that you just don’t understand, because things today are okay, or so much better than they were before?

  • Is it sometimes hard to pinpoint why you often feel poorly, or why certain things consistently bother you?

  • Are you consistently frustrated by dynamics within some relationships that seem like they can never be different or better?

  • Do you spend a lot of the time reflecting on your experiences of the past, wishing maybe they never happened, or that life could have been different?

  • Do you sometimes recognize that you feel weighed down by the sum of all the yucky emotional stuff you have been through and you can’t shake it?

A video introduction to EMDR Treatment

EMDR is one of many therapeutic protocols that can be used to help with the negative ways you think your past could be impacting your present experiences. Unlike other types of therapy where the basis of the work is through talking, EMDR taps into your existing healing capabilities using bilateral stimulation (or moving your eyes back and forth or physical tapping) to process negative memories without talking. EMDR works to link memories of traumatic events with adaptive helpful resources in order to lessen present day distress and trauma symptoms. EMDR is well researched and effective and it has been endorsed by the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association, among others (EMDRIA.org).

Hands holding on to a metal bar

Symptoms associated with the experience of trauma:

  • shock, denial or disbelief

  • anger, irritability, mood swings

  • anxiety and fear or panic attacks

  • guilt, shame, self blame

  • withdrawing from others

  • feeling sad or hopeless

  • intrusive thoughts of the event out of the blue

  • nightmares or night sweats

  • difficulty concentrating or remembering

  • confusion

  • feeling disconnected or numb

  • phobias

Lady spreads her hands out and looks into the horizon in elation

EMDR treatment can help you to:

  • Better manage your big and little emotions

  • Reduce or remove experiencing unwelcome emotions that pop up at unexpected times

  • Better help you live in the present

  • See yourself more positively

  • Quiet your negative and self-deprecating thoughts

  • Help you get along better with other people

  • Reduce tension, other negative body sensations that you associate with thoughts of the past

  • Reduce your fears about the future

I believe that you have the capacity to heal, using pathways that we will navigate together. I welcome the privilege to accompany you on your journey towards healing using EMDR therapy.