Online EMDR Therapy in California and Nevada
You may understand your patterns logically… and still feel emotionally overwhelmed.
You may know where your anxiety comes from. Yet your body reacts as if the past is happening now.
You may feel capable and high-functioning in many areas of your life, but privately struggle with persistent self-criticism, triggers, or a sense of being “stuck.”
EMDR therapy is designed to help the brain process and integrate painful experiences so they no longer carry the same emotional charge. I provide online EMDR therapy for adults located in California and Nevada who are seeking structured, trauma-informed care.
What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based psychotherapy developed to treat trauma and distressing life experiences. It helps the brain reprocess memories that remain unintegrated, allowing them to feel less activating and more resolved.
Rather than repeatedly retelling painful experiences, EMDR focuses on how memories are stored in the nervous system. Through structured bilateral stimulation, the brain is able to process experiences in a way that reduces emotional intensity and shifts long-standing negative beliefs. EMDR therapy has the potential to transform your relationship with yourself and the world around you. (To learn more about the AIP model, click here)
EMDR is widely used for trauma disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research also shows great benefits for using EMDR to address anxiety, panic, shame, and other patterns rooted in earlier experiences.
Click here if you’d like EMDRIA’s official page on EMDR Therapy.
Who EMDR Therapy Can Help?
EMDR therapy may be helpful if you are experiencing:
- Childhood or complex trauma
- Single-incident trauma (accidents, assaults, medical events, loss)
- Anxiety or panic connected to past experiences
- Persistent triggers that feel disproportionate to the present
- Core negative beliefs such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m unsafe”
- Performance or relationship blocks
- A sense that you’ve done insight-oriented therapy but still feel stuck
Many of the adults I work with are thoughtful and self-aware. EMDR can help bridge the gap between intellectual understanding and emotional resolution.
What EMDR Therapy is Like?
A client once described to me that before EMDR, his traumatic memories were like YouTube videos, autoplaying every time something brought them up. By the end of EMDR, he described these memories as being more like video thumbnails. Yes, he knew they existed and he could access these memories if he wanted. However, they no longer intruded into his life, looping over and over again.
EMDR therapy starts with putting together a treatment plan, featuring important memories and triggers that have been upsetting the balance of your life. We then build resources and skills to ensure you feel grounded and supported before healing trauma. These steps could be brief, or they could take significant periods of time.
Then the processing can begin. EMDR is not a typical talk therapy. Plenty of time is given to check in and debrief. Yet, when it’s time to dive into a specific memory or trigger, we get out of the brain’s way and let it process. This dynamic enables a warm and safe therapeutic environment where there is also plenty of space to process.
EMDR isn’t about reliving trauma in excruciating detail. It’s about helping your nervous system remove blocks and heal lingering wounds.
My Approach
I’ve been described in therapy as warm, kind, and “always willing to hold hope even when that hope wasn’t obvious.”
As an EMDRIA Certified EMDR Therapist and EMDR Consultant-in-Training, I stay true to the evidence-based ways in which EMDR therapy can be most effective. That said, I also hold certification in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), and integrate tools and concepts into our EMDR work as appropriate.
I always work with clients to make sure we are on the same page in understanding the problems they’re facing. The careful preparation we then embark on includes psychoeducation on everything we’re doing and building skills to tolerate distress whenever it comes up. When ready, we move toward processing traumatic memories and triggers at a pace you can feel safe within.
Many of my clients are ambitious and creative people looking to overcome blocks in their performance. Others come to me for EMDR after feeling that traditional talk therapy has not fully addressed the root of their distress.
You can also click here to learn more about my general therapy approach.
Dispelling Common Myths About EMDR Therapy
As EMDR therapy has grown in popularity, a lot of myths have popped up over the years. I wanted to set the record straight on some of the ones I hear most often.
Myth #1: EMDR Therapy is Hypnosis
When EMDR practitioners talk about having clients visually follow their fingers side-to-side, visuals of swinging pocket watches and hypnotic states may emerge. EMDR is not hypnosis, however. No thought or image insertion occurs in EMDR therapy. The individual’s brain and associated memory networks—not the therapist’s agenda– lead this work. Follow the brain, EMDR says, because the brain knows where it needs to go.
Without going into too much detail, we believe EMDR therapy works in part because of the bilateral stimulation of the brain and dual attention. In the early days, desensitizing and reprocessing painful memories happened exclusively through eye movement. Research shows visual bilaterals may still be most helpful, but other methods, such as tapping, have also been found to generate sufficient bilateral stimulation. Despite what it looks and sounds like, EMDR therapy actually shares very little with hypnosis.
Myth #2: EMDR Only Helps with Trauma
The American Psychiatric Association (APA), U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), and World Health Organization (WHO) all recognize EMDR as a gold standard treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Because of this, one may reasonably assume EMDR therapy strictly treats trauma disorders. This is only partly true.
EMDR specialists would agree that this model focuses on reprocessing traumatic memories. The confusion comes down to the use of the word trauma, which has come to take on many different meanings. As opposed to the traditional clinical interpretation of trauma as experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, EMDR therapists take a broader view. In this model, trauma is defined as an event or circumstance that fundamentally impacts the way a person sees themselves or the world around them.
So yes, EMDR therapy focuses on reprocessing trauma, but this also translates to working well with individuals experiencing a wide array of diagnoses. Indeed, research has shown EMDR to be effective in working with depression, phobias, anxiety disorders, and more.
Myth #3: EMDR Therapy Must Be Done In-Person
For many years, EMDR professionals insisted that treatment must be done in-person to achieve positive outcomes. Because of the limited understanding researchers had about why EMDR therapy worked, clinicians played it safe and stayed closely within the known, research-backed protocol. This was really the most ethical approach—any significant deviation from the in-person, regimented protocol could result in missing out on a hidden benefit of EMDR.
The pandemic challenged this norm. With the threat of contagion looming, EMDR practitioners logged onto telehealth platforms and began adapting the model. Significant periods of time was spent focusing on ways to emulate the bilateral stimulation that is so key for EMDR therapy. When the results began pouring in, EMDR practitioners found that telehealth was as effective as in-person treatment.
For EMDR therapy to work online, clients must use a large enough screen so that their eyes get enough swing during the bilateral stimulation. It’s important to maximize the browser window and close any other on-screen programs to ensure the best results.
All of that said– not everybody is a great fit for online therapy. Telehealth appropriateness should be assessed for when starting EMDR therapy with any provider.
Myth #4: EMDR Therapy Always Works Quickly
EMDR therapists often speak excitedly about how quickly they achieve positive outcomes with their clients. Practitioners may even discuss the magical experience of lifelong distress being alleviated in a handful of sessions.
EMDR therapy can work surprisingly quickly. However, please remember that everybody’s timeline looks different. Longer or multiple episodes of trauma can complicate things, extending the length successful treatment will take. Furthermore, if a person needs additional tools and space to regulate their emotions and stay in their body, that takes time. Other considerations apply, too.
Is EMDR Therapy Right for You?
EMDR therapy may be a good fit if:
- You feel emotionally “stuck”
- Your brain and your body disagree on the facts
- You are ready to address past experiences in a supported, structured way
If any of that resonates, I invite you to schedule a brief consultation with me to determine whether we are a good fit. I currently offer secure telehealth services to adults in California and Nevada.