EMDR Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing Therapy

A globally researched and used resource for healing - for over 30 years.

What is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy is a type of therapy that enables people to heal from symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. 

It’s commonly assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal.  EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma - over a shorter duration of time. 

Consider the example of a cut on your hand, your body then works to heal the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates (or blocks) the wound, it festers, causing pain and healing is delayed.  EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes.  The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health.  If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering.  Once the block is removed, healing resumes. 

-emdr.org

An informational video that discusses emotional distress, trauma’s impact on the brain, and the effects of EMDR during the healing process.

I am honored to co-create space for healing and liberation. You can expect our time together to be trauma-informed, relational, somatic-based, culturally humble, affirming, anti-oppressive and uniquely tailored to you.

EMDR can be integrated into our work together in therapy, used as a stand-alone therapy/treatment or as an adjunctive therapy (aka in addition to seeing your primary talk therapist). In addition to trauma, during our transformative time together I also offer support with the following using EMDR:

  • developing healthier ways to cope and navigate life stressors

  • identifying negative core beliefs and their past-present-future impact

  • healing attachment wounds

  • healing from a divorce

  • exploring and healing ancestral and intergenerational wounds

  • moving through sadness and depression into internal drive, determination, and joy

  • building trust (with yourself and others)

  • resolving internalized oppression (homo/biphobia, colorism, classism, and all internalized -isms)

  • addressing perfectionism (with yourself and others)

  • addressing unrealistic expectations

  • healing from betrayal

  • building self-esteem

  • addressing strong desires to be in control

  • reducing hyper-vigilance or hyperalterness

  • establishing and maintaining healthy relationships

  • addressing irritability and anger

  • transitioning out of hopelessness and helplessness

  • shifting from overwhelm and panic into balance and calm

  • moving out of feeling numb into connectivity

  • shifting out of anxiety into internal stillness

  • managing chronic stress

  • building a sense of self-worth

  • addressing phobias

  • reclaiming your personal power

    You’ve survived. Now it’s time to heal.

Trauma: PTSD & CPTSD

PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can develop from exposure to any situation or event where one’s life or bodily integrity (physically, psychologically, or emotionally) is threatened and exceeds the person’s capacity to cope. If a person develops PTSD, it is commonly as a result of witnessing or directly experiencing a single traumatic event. As a result a person develops trauma response symptoms that include nightmares, flashbacks, avoidance behaviors (avoiding people, places, or other reminders of the trauma), feeling easily scared, feeling on-edge or hypervigilance, difficulty concentrating, sleep disturbances, and other symptoms outlined the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).

Examples of events are not limited to but include: catastrophic accidents and losses, natural disasters (hurricanes, fires, floods, earthquakes), a mass shooting, mugging, car accident, robbery, war, combat, physical or sexual assault, a life-threatening medical diagnosis, and other extreme or life-threatening events.  

CPTSD: Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can result from prolonged or repeated experiences or exposure to violence, physical or psychological abuse, neglect or other forms of trauma. Often there is a relational or interpersonal component to the trauma experienced and can begin in (but is not limited to) childhood and compound over a period of time or lifetime. Similar to PTSD, with CPTSD a person develops trauma response symptoms in addition to challenges regulating emotional responses and reactivity (aka big feelings to not-as-big things), challenges achieving or sustaining emotional intimacy as well as other esteem, identity, somatic, and relationally based symptoms.

Examples of events that can lead to CPTSD are not limited to but include: witnessing or experiencing child psychological, sexual, physical abuse or emotional neglect, bullying, intimate partner violence, solitary confinement, the process of immigration, experiencing poverty, oppression, infidelity, or repeated exposure to disasters, deaths or violence, living under severe threat for extended periods of time.

A brief overview of what happens during EMDR Therapy. Please click here for the Spanish version of the video.

My goal as a trained EMDR therapist is to use EMDR to shift your life narrative from deficit-oriented and narrowly trauma-focused to one that is broad, holistic, balanced and empowered.