FAQs

EMDR is one of the most researched approaches for trauma, recognized by the World Health Organization, the American Psychological Association, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Many people also find it helpful for anxiety, shame, and long-held patterns, though results vary from person to person.

You may be a good fit if you understand your patterns but still feel stuck in them. The best way to know is to talk it through, so I offer a free 15-minute consultation to explore whether EMDR is right for you.

It varies. Some clients feel relief after a few sessions focused on a single memory; others with more complex or long-standing trauma work with EMDR over several months. I integrate it into ongoing therapy rather than running it as a one-size-fits-all protocol — and we track your progress together.

The change is rarely dramatic. Nobody walks out transformed.

What people describe is more like distance. The memory is still there, but it's further away. Something that used to set them off doesn't, and they notice it afterward rather than in the moment. A weight they'd stopped registering because it had been there so long is suddenly gone, and its absence is what they feel.

The way one person put it: it stopped controlling me.

Both are well-researched, effective treatments for trauma, and the World Health Organization recommends both. The difference is in how they work.

CBT focuses on your thoughts and behaviors. Together we'd identify unhelpful beliefs, challenge them, and practice new ways of responding, often with exercises between sessions.

EMDR focuses on the memory itself. Using guided eye movements or gentle tapping, your brain reprocesses a painful experience so it feels less charged. You don't need to describe every detail out loud, and there's no homework. Many people find that healthier beliefs ("I'm safe now," "It wasn't my fault") emerge on their own as the memory loses its grip.

Neither is right for everyone. Part of our first conversation is figuring out which approach fits you best.

The biggest one is that EMDR erases or deletes the traumatic memory. It doesn't. The memory stays, EMDR doesn't rewrite what happened or make you forget it. What changes is how it feels when you access it. Instead of triggering a full-body alarm response, panic, flooding, being pulled right back into it, the memory becomes something you can recall without it hijacking your nervous system. Most people describe it afterward as feeling more distant, like something that happened, rather than something that's still happening to them.

No. Unlike some trauma therapies, EMDR doesn't require you to narrate every detail of what happened. You bring the memory to mind, but you don't have to describe it to me moment by moment. A lot of the processing happens internally, through the bilateral stimulation, while I guide the process and check in along the way. People are often surprised by how little they actually have to say out loud for it to work.

No. You're awake, alert, and aware throughout the entire process. There's no trance state and nothing happens without your active participation.

Sometimes. The brain often links related memories together, so processing one thing can surface related material. This isn't a malfunction; it's part of how the brain naturally organizes and resolves distressing material, and we go at whatever pace feels manageable.

No. While it's best known for trauma and PTSD, EMDR is also used for anxiety, panic, phobias, grief, and some forms of chronic stress or performance-related blocks.