EMDR Therapy to help Empaths & Helpers heal from trauma

Feel better without reliving the worst parts of your past

Highly sensitive woman at her desk, looking exhausted from burnout and anxiety

If you’ve been through something hard —whether it was a major, “BIG T” trauma or just years of "smaller”, “little t” traumas — it’s completely normal to feel stuck: you’re having a NORMAL reaction to ABNORMAL situations.

You do your best to just “move on” from all you’ve been through, because,

“What’s the point of digging up the past?

But the more you push yourself to work harder, smile harder, function harder, the more your body shuts down and you. just. fucking. can’t anymore.

Maybe you keep looping through flashbacks, get overtaken by anxiety, are stuck in the same relationship ruts, or are haunted by “sticky” feelings, no matter how much you talk it out in years of therapy.

That’s where EMDR therapy comes in.

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a gentle, powerful way to help your brain and body finally process what’s been frozen in your body — so you can feel lighter, more grounded, and free to move forward with your life without having to relive every single painful memory.

As a brain-based therapy, EMDR helps you heal from painful experiences using bilateral stimulation — things like eye movements, body sensations, tapping, or sounds that alternate the left to right sides of your body.

(This is why you might have deep insights about a trouble situation after long walks or drives — you activate both sides of your body with each step — left foot, right foot.)

EMDR is an evidence-based therapy backed by decades of research and was originally developed for PTSD, but it’s now used for so much more.

I use EMDR to help clients in therapy with:

  • Anxiety and panic attacks (stuck “ON”)

  • Emotional overwhelm or shutdown (stuck “OFF”)

  • Childhood trauma or attachment wounds

  • Relationship patterns rooted in past experiences

  • Grief & loss

  • Chronic guilt or shame

  • Professional or spiritual traumas

  • Feeling “stuck” in the past — even if you can’t explain why

The best part of EMDR? You don’t have to relive every detail of what happened or even say out loud what you’re processing.

EMDR helps your brain work through and file away old pain without needing to retell the whole story. (So no problem if you’re feeling self-conscious or embarrassed about a specific event — you call the shots as to what you’re open for!)

Ready to be free of old baggage?

 

EMDR vs. Brainspotting: What’s the Difference?

As body-based trauma therapy approaches, both EMDR and Brainspotting (BSP) are effective in helping people heal. I offer both, and am actually certified in Brainspotting.

Brainspotting actually emerged out of EMDR, and both use our eyes, but they work slightly differently.

Here’s a quick side-by-side to help you decide what might be right for you:

Brainspotting (BSP) Therapy

  • Uses a steady gaze + body awareness

  • More open-ended and intuitive

  • Helpful if you prefer to follow your body’s lead

  • Can work without clear memories or words

  • Great for clients who feel “stuck” but aren’t sure why or feel readily overwhelmed

  • Growing body of research and deeply somatic

EMDR Therapy

  • Uses guided sets of eye movements, tapping, or sound

  • More structured, with 8 phases

  • Helpful if you like a clear process

  • Often focuses on specific memories or events

  • Great for clients who want to reprocess specific trauma memories in a focused, guided way

  • Evidence-based and widely recognized

Not sure which is right for you?

Let’s do a free 15-min consultation to see which might be best fit for your healing style.