In-Person in Walnut Creek & On-line in the Bay Area and throughout CA.  

EMDR Therapy

Experience relief and accelerated healing. For good. 

clay pot therapist office

Tried traditional talk therapy and continue to feel stuck?

Maybe you know exactly what is keeping you feeling stuck: distressing memories, traumatic experiences or limiting beliefs (such as ‘I am unlovable’, ‘I am powerless’, ‘I am not a good enough mother’, and many more). 

Maybe it’s something from the past that you have yet to uncover, but you know that something just doesn’t feel right, and you have a sense that it’s showing up in your present life and affecting you in many parts of your life. 

You’re tired of your past experiences keeping you feeling stuck - rooted to the same behavior, relationship patterns, or self-loathing patterns. You don’t want to relive every detail of your past, or uncover experiences only to spend sessions talking about every moment of that experience, but you know you need to do something to feel like your old self - or a new, more authentic self. 

How EMDR Therapy Works


EMDR is an evidence-based approach to therapy that empowers your journey to emotional freedom and lasting healing. 

Eye Movement and Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) is a beautiful method that allows you to take control over how much you share in session, how quickly we move in session, and the topics we work on - all while rewiring your brain to create lasting change that you can actually see and feel. 

EMDR is a structured therapy that utilizes our brain’s natural ability to heal through reprocessing of fragmented memories and moving them towards ‘logic’;  in the process lowering the temperature of your emotional response, and alleviating the associated physical, mental, and emotional symptoms to distressing memories.  

It takes the images, feelings, thoughts and sounds associated with your distressing memory, and addresses how the stress from these symptoms was held in your body. EMDR then helps you reprocess the events in its entirety, allowing you to shift your focus from only the fragmented difficult moments and stuck beliefs, to the reality of the whole experience, working towards new, positive beliefs. 


The 8 Phases of EMDR

EMDR focuses on the fact that our brain has a natural ability to heal, and these eight phases are a proven method to help guide your brain through the reprocessing and healing experience. Over the course of the eight phases, we will work together to: prepare, assess, reprocess, and provide you the tools to manage any emotions that may come up. 

  • In EMDR, you are the driver of your treatment plan. It’s important that I gather your history, and discuss with you what you hope to accomplish in our work together. I’ll talk to you about your strengths, your support system, and other factors that are impacting you. This will help us in getting a holistic picture of what is going on.

  • I will begin to introduce EMDR to you and discuss what you can expect in every stage of the process. We will spend time going over every question or concern that you may have, making sure you feel informed and ready for the process. We will also review your strengths, along with coping strategies to use in and out of session to manage difficult emotions. These will be the coping skills used in session to assist in management of difficult emotions.

  • In this phase, I will ask you to identify the event that we will begin reprocessing. You don’t have to remember specifics, and you won’t be asked to talk about the details of your painful experiences if you are not ready to. If you can access them, we will include images, beliefs, feelings, and sensations. I will use a measuring tool (similar to scaling questions) to help us see your progress as we go through the stages.

  • We will use either tapping, eye movement, or other dual attention stimulation to activate both sides of your brain through a process called ‘bilateral stimulation’ as you think about the event we chose to target in session. In this stage, you will work on reducing your distress surrounding the experience and allow new images, feelings, and sensations to come to the surface in a safe and supportive environment.

  • We will work towards reaching the new goal image or belief that you want to have about the event, such as ‘I did the best that I could.’. We will stay in this stage until your new belief feels completely true.

  • In this stage, I will ask you to think of your new belief about the event or belief about self while scanning your body from head to toe. An important part of EMDR is learning how to understand the messages your body is telling you as you hold your target event and the positive belief. I will help you process any lingering disturbances from the body with more bilateral stimulation.

  • Here, I will assist you in returning to a state of calm in the present moment wherever we are in the processing experience. It is important to me that you leave the session feeling calm and grounded, even if we have not completed the processing in one session.

  • At the beginning of each new session, I will discuss recently processed memories to assess and make sure that your distress level continues to stay low and positive thoughts are strong. We will then work together to decide on your next target interest.

What we’ll work on

EMDR Therapy can help you:

  • Process and heal from both ‘little T’ traumas and ‘big T’ traumas

  • Bring relief from phobias and fears

  • Recover from grief and loss

  • Reprocess and heal from difficult and traumatic birth experiences 

  • Heal traumatic childhood experiences 

  • Overcome depression and anxiety

  • Manage stress and cope with life transitions

  • Resolve relationship struggles 

  • Become the parent you want to be

What would it feel like to finally be unstuck? 

You would feel more confident, calmer, and less reactive to the bumps in the road that you will inevitably experience in whatever season of life you are in. You will feel more present, more engaged with your loved ones, parent the way you want to parent, enjoy your season of motherhood, and feel more relaxed in your body. You will finally feel like your authentic self. 


FAQS

Common questions about EMDR Therapy

  • Yes! I’ve attended two, three day long sessions of training for EMDR where I witnessed live demonstrations of how effective EMDR is. I’ve also experienced EMDR myself, and have been witness to the positive change it can bring. I’ve had consultation with my colleagues where we discussed how amazed and honored we are to be a part of our client’s active, current improvements in symptoms and quality of life, and we have witnessed it happen for client after client.

    Some things that clients have shared:

    • They had done traditional talk therapy for years and were not able to see significant lasting change like they have been able to experience with EMDR.

    • They felt relief after one reprocessing session that they hadn’t felt in years from traditional talk therapy.

    • They experienced lasting results that last for months, even years after.

  • Absolutely. During the pandemic, many studies were completed for utilizing tapping and eye movements using people’s own bodies or a program on a computer screen, and very positive results were found. EMDR was just as effective for many as in-person sessions.

  • EMDR is a technique that works best for those individuals that are ready to move on from their symptoms and distressing memories. EMDR may not be a good technique for those that are actively experiencing trauma or are not ready to reprocess past memories. Reach out to me here for a free phone consultation to further discuss this.

  • Hypnosis is a practice where a therapist invites the client into a trance state, and the therapist will then lead the session. EMDR is a practice where the entire session is in your control; you are not placed in a trance, you are able to stay present, and can ask for pauses in session when needed.