Online EMDR Therapy in Texas and Idaho
For people who struggle with anxiety, depression, and trauma
If you’re here, you might be struggling with overwhelming thoughts, feelings, and experiences.
You may be dealing with addiction, burnout, depression, anxiety, and relationship problems. And you probably want relief from the burdens of your mind.
What you may not realize is that many of these everyday struggles can stem from trauma.
Trauma impacts almost everybody at one point or another. It can show up in many ways throughout adulthood, including anxiety, depression, work-life balance struggles, substance abuse or addiction, and relationship issues. And trauma doesn’t always look the way you think it’s supposed to.
Most of us have been taught that trauma involves huge and catastrophic things like violence, assault, or war. And these things are all traumatic.
But trauma doesn’t always have to big. It doesn’t even have to be outwardly visible.
Trauma is caused by anything that overwhelms your nervous system and sense of safety. Any adverse experience can be traumatic.
Trauma impacts your nervous system and can make you feel like you’re always on guard. It can make you struggle in ways you don’t understand and feel like you have no control over. It can cause feelings of unworthiness and promote self-sabotage.
Sometimes, trauma feels so intense that the memories of an event remain unprocessed. This can cause you to live with all kinds of symptoms. Here are some examples:
Distress
Fear
Physical pain
Illness
Flashbacks
Anger
Numbness
When you’ve experienced trauma, everything feels scary almost all the time. It’s hard to relax. It’s hard to trust yourself or others.
The distress caused by these symptoms can result in anxiety, depression, addiction, disconnection from loved ones, and suffering.
EMDR can reduce the distress and symptoms caused by trauma.
This is because it’s capable of treating your unprocessed memories. By enabling you to properly process and store unprocessed memories, you can safely put your trauma behind you and move on with your life.
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of therapy that helps people process distressing memories and feelings caused by trauma. EMDR promotes healing on a neuropsychological level.
It’s designed to access the traumatic memory network within your brain and body, and to reduce triggers and difficult emotions surrounding a traumatic event or series of events. The traumatic memory is processed and integrated more fully into your system, and you are able to move on from it.
EMDR is evidence-based and effective for those experiencing trauma, anxiety, depression, and other mental health struggles. It can allow you to break free from what’s holding you back and live a more whole-hearted life.
Just like talk therapy, EMDR can help you work through your struggles. But it isn’t just talk therapy. It involves eye movements and directed tapping in order to engage both sides of the brain and the memory processing centers. There can be verbal processing before and after an EMDR session, depending on what you need.
What Online EMDR Therapy With Me Looks Like
A session of online EMDR therapy with me looks different depending on who you are and what you’re looking for.
I will never push you to do something you’re uncomfortable with or not ready for. What happens during your sessions is always your choice. We’ll always start wherever you are and go from there, depending on what you need that day.
Sometimes this looks like starting with EMDR. Sometimes I may start with cognitive-based mindfulness therapy first. Often I combine the two.
If you decide to move forward with EMDR, my job is to make each session feel safe and effective for you
During an EMDR session, I will gently instruct you on what to do and how to do it. We often start by deciding which memory to target. We don’t need to talk at length – or at all – about the traumatic memory you want to focus on. But we may talk about any unpleasant sensations, intrusive thoughts, negative feelings, or self-beliefs that arise when you think about it.
Then I help you direct your eye movements and guide you through what to focus on.
I often incorporate what’s called butterfly tapping. This is when you cross both arms over your chest and gently tap yourself with both hands. The tapping combined with directed eye movements helps you safely process and store the traumatic memories.
EMDR can be uncomfortable because of the thoughts and feelings you may experience during a session. But it’s rare that a client has a truly adverse reaction to it. There is a very low risk of harm with this type of therapy. And for most people, it’s a less overwhelming way to treat trauma than many alternatives.
However, if you become overwhelmed or overly uncomfortable, you can stop at anytime. I’ll help you regulate your nervous system and we’ll talk about how to move forward together. I’m always on your team – so whatever you need, I’m happy to help you with.
You may find yourself dissociating during sessions – and that’s okay. Dissociation during EMDR is normal.
If you dissociate, we’ll start with mindfulness-based cognitive therapy or internal family systems therapy (IFS). Everybody is different and needs different things, and your treatment will always be catered to you.
Is Online EMDR Therapy Right For You?
Working with an online EMDR therapist is right for you if:
You deal with anger, numbness, anxiety, depression, or other negative emotional responses that you want to reduce
You feel motivated to do the work
You’ve tried other forms of therapy and they haven’t helped
You’re curious about it
All you need to do is show up. I know it can be scary to take the leap into unknown territory. But I’ll support you through everything that comes up. We’re in this together.
And if you’re curious but not entirely sure online EMDR therapy is for you, you can always try it once to check it out. If you don’t like it, we’ll explore other interventions together. Therapy isn’t black-and-white, so if something doesn’t work, we’ll figure out what will.
How Long Will Healing Take When Working With an Online EMDR Therapist?
How long you’re in online EMDR therapy is entirely individual. Some people need many sessions, and some people need very few. Your nervous system does the processing and is the boss.
Although I can’t give you an exact timeline, I can tell you that putting work toward your healing and inner peace is often the right call. EMDR can give you that gift.
If you’re curious how working with an online EMDR therapist can help you heal, try it with me. Let’s help you move beyond your trauma.