Trauma &
EMDR
Trauma isn't just what happened to you.
It's what happened inside of you in response.
Many people who carry trauma often don't think of themselves as having it. The word feels too large, or too clinical, or like it belongs to someone else'.
What they notice instead is the way certain situations make their body react before their mind catches up, or the patterns that don't make sense until you trace them back far enough. It feels like the accumulated weight of something they've never been able to set down.
Trauma isn't always one, defined event. Sometimes it's years of smaller wounds that built into something both imprecise and overwhelming. We can work with both presentations, and the full range in between.
Trauma isn't just what happened to you. It's what happened inside you in response; the ways your nervous system learned to protect you that no longer serve you the way they once did.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is one of the most extensively researched trauma treatments available. It works by helping your brain reprocess distressing memories by changing the way they're stored, so they lose their grip on your present.
I use EMDR with clients navigating a wide range of experiences: childhood wounds, birth trauma, pregnancy and infant loss, relationship trauma, and the accumulated weight of chronic stress. You don't need a formal trauma diagnosis to benefit from this work. Sessions are structured and move at your pace; nothing happens without your full participation.
What you can expect:
Process painful memories without having to relive them in narrative detail
Evidence-based treatment for trauma, birth experiences, grief, &
chronic stress
A way to process what talk therapy along hasn't been able to reach
FAQ
1. Do I have to talk about everything that happened in detail?
No. This is a commonly expressed concern, and it's one of the reasons EMDR is particularly useful. EMDR doesn't require you to narrate your experience in detail or relive it verbally. The processing happens at a neurological level, not a conversational one. You'll need to verbally identify what we're working on, but you won't be required to walk through it scene by scene.
2. Do I have to have a formal trauma diagnosis?
No. While EMDR was originally developed to treat PTSD, research has found it effective for a wide range of concerns. Many of those who benefit from it don't meet criteria for PTSD and wouldn't describe themselves as having "trauma" in the clinical sense. What they have is something from the past that's still affecting their present, whether in their relationships, their nervous system, or in patterns that don't quite make sense until you trace them back far enough.
3. What if I've tried therapy before and it didn't touch this?
EMDR works differently than talk therapy, which is part of why it can reach things that insight-oriented work alone may not. Understanding something cognitively and processing it at a somatic and memory-consolidation level are two different things. If you've done work on something and it still has a charge — still makes your body react, still pulls you back — that's often a sign it hasn't been fully processed yet, not that it can't be.
4. How long does EMDR take?
It varies significantly depending on what you're working on and how it's structured in the nervous system. Some targeted experiences resolve in a handful of sessions. More complex or layered trauma, especially anything that developed over a long period, takes longer. I won't give you a timeline upfront that I can't honestly guarantee, but I will talk with you openly about where we are as we go.
Additional Resources
A few places to learn more between sessions, or if you're not ready to reach out yet.
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EMDR International Association: The professional body that trains and certifies EMDR therapists
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EMDRIA's public information page: An explanation of how EMDR works, for anyone curious before starting
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National Center for PTSD: Federal research and education center on trauma and PTSD, for a broader view beyond one specific modality