Trauma & EMDR Therapy in Sacramento, CA
Trauma can come from one overwhelming experience or build over time through difficult relationships and experiences. This may include childhood or attachment wounds, complex trauma, family-of-origin experiences, or other experiences that continue to affect you today.
Sometimes you can understand exactly where a pattern comes from and still find yourself reacting in ways that are hard to change. You may have talked about the past, made connections, or learned ways to cope, but certain experiences still bring up the same emotions, beliefs, or reactions. Understanding yourself can be an important part of therapy, but sometimes insight alone doesn’t create the change you’re looking for.
EMDR can offer another way of working with experiences and patterns that continue to feel distressing or difficult to shift.
There can be a lot of value in understanding your experiences and how they have shaped you. Sometimes, though, insight doesn't completely change the emotional or physical response.
You might know why something affects you. You may have talked about it before, developed coping skills, or done a lot of work on yourself. And yet certain situations can still bring up the same feelings, beliefs, or reactions.
EMDR can offer another way of working through those experiences when you understand the “why” but still find yourself feeling stuck in the same responses.
When understanding it hasn't been enough
Common Questions about EMDR
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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based therapy that can help people process traumatic or distressing experiences. During EMDR, we use bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements or alternating tapping, while working with memories, emotions, beliefs, or body sensations connected to an experience.
The goal isn’t to erase what happened or make it feel like it didn’t matter. Instead, EMDR can help experiences feel less distressing and have less influence over how you feel and respond in the present. You remain awake and in control throughout the process, and we move at a pace that feels manageable for you.
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EMDR is well known for its use in treating trauma and PTSD, but it may also be helpful for other concerns, including anxiety, fears, distressing memories, and patterns connected to difficult past experiences.
I may incorporate EMDR when working with single-event trauma, childhood experiences, attachment wounds, complex trauma, difficult relationships, anxiety, or experiences that continue to feel emotionally charged or affect how you see yourself and respond in the present.
People come to EMDR with different experiences and concerns. We’ll take time to understand what you’re experiencing and talk together about whether EMDR may be a helpful part of your therapy.
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We won’t jump straight into processing difficult experiences. We’ll first spend time getting to know you, understanding what brings you to therapy, and talking about what you’d like to be different. I’ll explain EMDR, answer your questions, and make sure you feel comfortable with what we’re doing before we begin.
If we decide to use EMDR, we’ll identify the experiences, memories, beliefs, or patterns we want to work with. We’ll move at your pace, with plenty of space to pause, ask questions, and check in about how the process is feeling.
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You don’t need to figure that out on your own before reaching out. EMDR may be worth exploring if you understand your patterns but still feel stuck in them, have talked about something before but it continues to carry an emotional charge, or find that past experiences are still affecting you in ways you wish they weren’t.
We’ll talk about what you’re experiencing, your history, and what you hope to get out of therapy. From there, we can discuss whether EMDR might be a good fit for you and decide together how, or whether, to incorporate it into our work.
“You are allowed to be both a work in progress and a person worthy of love.”
— Brené Brown