Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

What is EMDR?

EMDR is an evidence-based therapy that helps your brain finish processing experiences it got stuck on. When something traumatic or overwhelming happens, the memory doesn't always get stored the way other memories do. It can stay lodged with its original emotional intensity intact, which is why certain things can make you feel like you're right back in the moment, even years later.

EMDR works by using guided eye movements or tapping to stimulate different sides of the brain while you hold a difficult memory in mind. That bilateral stimulation engages your brain's natural processing system.

What does EMDR treat?

EMDR was developed for trauma and PTSD, and that's still where it has the strongest research behind it. It's effective for complex trauma, childhood abuse, single-incident events like accidents or assaults, and the kind of ongoing relational trauma that doesn't fit neatly into any one category.

It's also used beyond trauma. Anxiety, phobias, grief, and deeply held negative beliefs about yourself can all be rooted in experiences your brain hasn't fully processed. EMDR can help with those too.

What does EMDR look like in sessions?

Most EMDR work involves some combination of the following.

• Building a foundation of safety and coping skills before any trauma processing begins.

• Working together to identify specific memories to target.

• Using guided bilateral stimulation to help your brain reprocess the stuck memory. In online sessions, this typically looks like tracking movement across your screen or using self-tapping.

• Installing new, positive, adaptive beliefs about yourself to replace the old responses the trauma left behind.

What EMDR is not

• EMDR is not hypnosis. You are fully awake, aware, and in control throughout the entire process. Nothing is done to you without your knowledge, and we can pause at any point. The bilateral stimulation can look unusual from the outside, but it's not a trance state and your therapist isn't taking over your mind.

• EMDR also doesn't require you to describe your trauma in detail. Many people avoid seeking help because they can't face the idea of narrating what happened out loud, session after session. With EMDR, you hold the memory in mind while the processing happens, but you don't have to walk your therapist through every moment of it, though we may need to discuss aspects of it.

• Lastly, EMDR doesn't erase memories. The goal isn't to make you forget what happened. It's to change how your brain stores it, so the memory no longer carries the same emotional weight. You'll still know what occurred. It just won't feel like it's still happening.

Why is EMDR effective?

Because it works with the way trauma actually lives in the body and brain. Talk therapy is valuable, but some experiences get stored in ways that talking alone doesn't fully reach. EMDR goes to where the memory is stuck and helps your brain complete the processing it started but couldn't finish.

For people who have tried other approaches without finding relief, or who feel like they've talked about something a hundred times without it actually shifting, EMDR often reaches a different layer entirely.