Online EMDR Therapy

The key to healing is already in you.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based and efficient form of trauma therapy that engages your brain’s natural healing process. It is designed to bring you not just relief, but also confidence in yourself and how you navigate the world.

My first experience with EMDR was as a client, and I learned first-hand how empowering it is to transform debilitating trauma into self-trust and hope. I later went on to complete EMDRIA-approved foundational training with a ND-affirming, complex trauma expert (Thomas Zimmerman), through the Institute for Creative Mindfulness. My focus within EMDR is on supporting Autistic and ADHD clients with complex trauma to heal and grow through whatever challenges are most important to them.

How EMDR works

The very nature of trauma is that a negative experience gets stored in the brain and embodied nervous system in a way that makes it feel like it’s always happening now—again and again. This can show up as “emotional flashbacks” where you don’t feel or act like yourself, and general feelings of being unsafe and unworthy, which in turn create anxiety, depression, and more.

Many people say they “know better,” but they just can’t make themselves feel or believe better about themselves. Fortunately, though, EMDR puts this ambivalence to productive use by activating your brain’s natural healing abilities.

EMDR’s special way of helping is that it connects the part of your brain that “knows better” to the part that holds the suffering. In EMDR, your brain receives the support it needs to heal itself.

This all happens neurologically, in a literal way. When you activate (to just the right extent) the neutral networks of trauma, and add bilateral stimulation and mindful noticing in a safe setting, the brain is able to retroactively “handle” what was previously overwhelming. When your brain then “puts away” or re-stores the memory, it’s no longer stored as overwhelming, but as tolerable—or as many in the EMDR world say, the trauma gets “metabolized.”

My literal Autistic brain loves the metaphor of metabolism for EMDR, because when we metabolize something, we naturally break it down into tiny parts, discard what isn’t nourishing, then transform and integrate whatever promotes growth and health. That’s just like trauma work with EMDR!

Through all this, EMDR can help reduce triggers and negative thoughts, leading to empowerment and beliefs of being worthy, safe, and capable—leading to greater ease in life. (And in case you have some good memories that are related to the tricky ones, it can be reassuring to know that EMDR does not erase memories, but instead changes how they feel when you think of them.)

The EMDR process

EMDR involves eight structured phases that begin with evaluation, planning, and resourcing. This is the part where I’ll help you learn about options, identify goals, and ensure that you are ready for reprocessing.

In the reprocessing phases, I’ll guide you through a protocol of bringing up the area of concern with a tolerable level of awareness, and we add “sets” of bilateral stimulation (left-right eye moments, sounds, tapping, etc.). These conditions can let your brain and body balance attention, stay regulated, and integrate mental material so that things can start to feel better.

EMDR can be effectively done online, and I offer bilateral stimulation options through a web app, self-tapping, or other creative options to suit your needs.

EMDR has a reputation for fast healing, which can be true for people with single-event traumas. For complex trauma that is common for ND folks, it can be a long-haul—but I’ll help you notice the gains you make along the way, and support continued progress. Though the work isn’t always fast, it can provide lasting and meaningful gains, and I’d love to help you experience that in your life