EMDR Therapy
Online Somatic and Attachment Focused Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing based in Aptos and serving all of California
Experience the transformative power of EMDR
Maybe you’ve tried talk therapy, or the thought of having to tell someone about painful memories keeps you from wanting to start. Or maybe you’ve heard that EMDR can help resolve stuck points in just a few sessions and you want to know if it could work for you too.
Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR is a structured, guided method that helps you explore and heal from the root
Somatic: This is a body-based therapy that will ask you to get in touch with how your body holds onto memories and reacts to your experiences
Attachment: At the core of trauma, there’s often an attachment wound. The experience was part of the pain, but it’s often made worse when we go to others for comfort, safety, or reassurance and instead find rejection, abandonment, and betrayal.
EMDR: The process of using bilateral stimulation to help ground you in the present while we explore your past memories and experiences so you can reprocess stuck memories and stop them from being triggered in the present.
EMDR is a different way of exploring memories through the lens of held emotions stuck in your body and attachment wounds that continue to show up in your current life. By using non-verbal methods, we can see how your mind has linked those past memories to others in ways you might not have guessed, allowing us to identify and reprocess the whole thread of stuck points.
EMDR is an eight-phase process. The eight phases are like a roadmap of how your treatment will progress.
We start out with talking through your history and planning out which memories or events you want to process.
Then we discuss expectations, questions, concerns, and readiness. We might practice skills to help you manage any trauma reactions that you may have during session as we talk through difficult material.
Next, we’ll get more specific about the memory or event we’re targeting. We’ll identify the images, beliefs, emotions, and body feelings that were happening for you at that time.
After we’ve got our list of specific things to process within the memory, we’ll get into the dual attention bilateral stimulation which is central to EMDR reprocessing. We can repeat this part as many times as we need (possibly over several sessions) until the memory no longer triggers a strong reaction from you.
Once the painful parts of the memory have been reprocessed, we’ll target a positive association for that memory in its place.
We’ll then hold the memory in mind and do a body scan to see if there’s any residual feeling, emotion, or image associated with that memory.
We end with closure- getting to a place of calm where you feel neutral about the past memory and your positive belief feels true.
If we don’t fully complete a memory in one session, we’ll end with a body scan and a visualization to help you put the memory away until the next session. During the week, I’ll ask you to notice and document any thoughts, memories, dreams, emotions, or other things that feel like they’re attached or relevant to what we’ve discussed.
Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR can help you…
Process traumatic or distressing memories
Work through intense emotional responses
Get to the root of the issue quickly
EMDR can provide the change you’re looking for
Get unstuck from your past and discover what healing looks like for your life
Frequently Asked Questions about Online EMDR Therapy
What if I’m afraid of feeling overwhelmed during EMDR?
This is why we start with preparation. We can talk through your fears and concerns, and we’ll make a plan for what we’ll do if you feel overwhelmed. You can stop EMDR reprocessing at any time during the session or I can coach you through using skills we practice ahead of time to help you work through it.
Do I have to talk about my trauma in detail?
Nope! During reprocessing, I’ll ask you to hold the images, emotions, and sensations of your memory but you don’t have to tell me any part of it you don’t want to. In the initial phases of treatment, I’ll ask you about your history but you’re always welcome to tell me you don’t want to share details.
What if I understand my trauma but still feel stuck?
EMDR might be the thing that really helps. Instead of talking about trauma and working through things on an intellectual level, we’ll use your somatic memories, thoughts, dreams, and emotions to access a different level of healing.
Can EMDR help with anxiety, panic, or grief?
Yes! EMDR was originally developed as a trauma treatment, but over the years it’s been studied and found to be helpful for a wide variety of people.
What counts as trauma?
EMDR can help with anything that feels stuck. If you have a recurring dream, thoughts that keep coming up, intrusive memories, difficult emotions, or even repeating body sensations, we can explore those using EMDR.
Why do I react emotionally when I know I’m safe?
Our sense of safety vs threat is largely subconscious. Your mind is protecting you by constantly scanning for threats. So knowing intellectually that you’re safe doesn’t always translate to your danger sense. When memories of pain, fear, or other emotions get stuck, we can feel those things even when the situation doesn’t call for them.
Can EMDR help if I tend to shut down emotionally?
It can, though we might also process that tendency to shut down first. Shutting down is a normal body response when you’re overwhelmed, and we may need to explore and reprocess the roots of that defense before we can work through your memories.
Is online EMDR therapy effective?
Online EMDR shown to be just as effective as in person therapy. We won’t have access to things like the light bar or buzzers (unless you have your own), but there are plenty of alternative ways to get the grounding bilateral stimulation like tapping, audio, or online trackers. We’ll explore all of these options before we start reprocessing to find the one that works best for you.