EMDR Therapy for Trauma & PTSD

Sometimes, you know exactly where your distress comes from. Other times, you may simply know that something from your past—or something you are living through now—continues to affect how you feel, how you see yourself, or how you relate to the people around you.

I specialize in helping adults and couples work through trauma, PTSD, and other difficult life experiences using Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.

As an EMDRIA Certified EMDR Therapist, I have extensive experience using EMDR with people whose experiences are complex, layered, or difficult to put neatly into a single category. Trauma does not always stem from one obvious event, and you do not need a PTSD diagnosis—or even be certain that what happened to you “counts” as trauma—for those experiences to continue affecting how you feel, relate to others, or move through the world.

What Is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is an evidence-based psychotherapy originally developed for the treatment of trauma and PTSD.

When something overwhelming happens, the brain does not always process the experience in the same way it processes ordinary memories. Parts of the experience can remain emotionally charged, contributing to distressing emotions, physical reactions, negative beliefs about yourself, or patterns that continue long after the original experience has ended.

EMDR helps the brain reprocess these experiences so that they can become less emotionally overwhelming and less influential in your present life.

EMDR is different from traditional talk therapy in that you do not necessarily have to describe every detail of what happened or repeatedly retell the entire story. While we will talk enough for me to understand your experiences and help guide our work, EMDR does not rely on an ongoing back-and-forth conversation to work through a traumatic memory. Instead, you briefly focus on aspects of the experience while engaging in bilateral stimulation—such as guided eye movements, alternating sounds, or tapping from one side of the body to the other. This structured process allows much of the reprocessing to happen internally, while I remain present to guide you, monitor what is coming up, and help you move through the process safely.

EMDR Can Help With More Than a Single Traumatic Event

People often associate EMDR with PTSD following a major traumatic event. While that is one of its best-known applications, trauma can take many forms.

Some experiences are clearly traumatic. Others become significant because they happened repeatedly, occurred within an important relationship, left you feeling powerless or unsafe, or fundamentally changed how you understood yourself or the world around you.

I use EMDR therapy with a wide range of experiences, including:

·       PTSD and complex trauma

·       Childhood abuse, emotional or physical neglect, and difficult early life experiences

·       Relationship trauma, betrayal, abandonment, and breaches of trust

·       Emotional, psychological, physical, and sexual abuse

·       Intimate partner violence and domestic violence

·       Toxic relationships, coercive control, and narcissistic abuse

·       Sexual assault and sexual trauma

·       Medical trauma and frightening healthcare experiences

·       Medical gaslighting or repeated experiences of feeling dismissed or disbelieved

·       Chronic or serious illness

·       Birth trauma

·       Infertility, fertility treatment, pregnancy loss, and reproductive trauma

·       Occupational or workplace-related trauma and cumulative exposure to distressing experiences

·       Trauma experienced by veterans, healthcare professionals, therapists, and other helping professionals

·       Accidents, injuries, and other frightening or life-threatening experiences

·       Traumatic grief and sudden or unexpected loss

·       Trauma related to discrimination, harassment, or bullying

You may also have experiences that do not fit neatly into any of these categories. Part of therapy can be understanding why something continues to affect you rather than deciding whether it meets someone else's definition of trauma.

Relationship Trauma, Toxic Relationships & Narcissistic Abuse

Some of the most difficult trauma to recognize happens within relationships.

You may know that a relationship hurt you but still question whether it was "bad enough" to call abusive. You may have spent years being criticized, manipulated, controlled, blamed, dismissed, or made to question your own perception of what was happening. You may understand intellectually that a relationship was unhealthy while still struggling with guilt, fear, anger, grief, self-doubt, or the emotional pull of that relationship.

I have extensive experience working with survivors of intimate partner violence and with people recovering from emotionally abusive, psychologically abusive, toxic, narcissistic, or coercive relationships of all forms. These relationships can take many forms: intimate partner relationships, parent/child relationships, relationships with a boss or co-worker, sibling relationships, friendships and more.

EMDR can help address not only specific traumatic experiences within these relationships, but also the beliefs and emotional patterns that can remain afterward—such as feeling unsafe, believing you cannot trust yourself, feeling responsible for other people's emotions, or struggling to trust others again.

This work is not limited to romantic relationships. Harmful or traumatic relationship dynamics can occur within families and other important relationships as well.

Medical Trauma, Chronic Illness & Medical Gaslighting

Living with chronic or serious illness can affect far more than your physical health.

You may have experienced frightening medical events, invasive procedures, uncertainty about your health, changes in your functioning or identity, or years of trying to find answers. You may also have experienced medical gaslighting or felt dismissed, minimized, or disbelieved by healthcare professionals.

Even when individual medical experiences do not seem traumatic in isolation, repeated experiences of pain, uncertainty, loss of control, or not being believed can accumulate over time.

I work with people navigating the emotional impact of chronic illness, serious illness, complicated medical experiences, and medical trauma. EMDR can be one part of helping your nervous system process what you have been through while also making space for the realities of what you may still be navigating.

Birth, Fertility & Reproductive Trauma

Experiences involving pregnancy, fertility, birth, and loss can carry profound emotional weight.

Birth trauma, infertility, fertility treatment, pregnancy loss, complicated pregnancies, unexpected medical interventions, difficulty postpartum, and other reproductive experiences can leave people with grief, fear, anger, guilt, helplessness, or a sense that their body has betrayed them.

These experiences can also be difficult because the people around you may not fully understand their impact.

EMDR can help process distressing memories and experiences associated with fertility, pregnancy, birth, and reproductive loss while honoring the complexity of what those experiences mean to you.

Trauma in Veterans, First Responders, Healthcare Workers, & Other Helping Professionals

Trauma can also happen through the work you do.

Before entering private practice, I spent approximately nine years working within the Department of Veterans Affairs. I have extensive experience working with veterans as well as first responders, healthcare professionals, and therapists who have been exposed to trauma, crisis, suffering, or loss through their work.

Occupational trauma is not always connected to one event. It may develop through repeated exposure, cumulative stress, moral injury, responsibility for other people's wellbeing, or experiences that you were expected to simply absorb because they were "part of the job."

For therapists and healthcare professionals in particular, it can be difficult to move from the role of helper into the role of client. I have extensive experience working with fellow therapists and understand the unique experience of doing your own therapeutic work while also bringing clinical knowledge and professional expertise into the room. In our work together, you do not have to be the expert, analyze the process, or take care of the person sitting across from you. You are allowed to simply be the client and have someone else hold the therapeutic space for you.

EMDR for Couples After Trauma

Trauma does not only affect individuals. Sometimes, couples experience something traumatic together.

A serious illness, medical crisis, pregnancy loss, traumatic birth, accident, sudden loss, or other overwhelming experience can affect each partner differently while also changing the relationship itself.

I have experience integrating EMDR into couples therapy when partners have experienced shared trauma and when EMDR is clinically appropriate.

Even when partners go through the same experience, they may understand, process, and respond to it very differently. Partners do not have to experience or respond to the trauma in the same way for this work to be meaningful.

This work may involve helping each partner process aspects of the experience while also addressing the ways trauma has affected connection, communication, safety, intimacy, or other aspects of the couples’ relationship.

EMDR within couples therapy is individualized carefully. Not every relationship concern is appropriate for EMDR, and we will determine together what approach makes the most sense for your circumstances.

When Someone You Love Is Living with Serious Mental Illness

Trauma and overwhelming experiences can also occur when you are not the person with the diagnosis.

Partners, family members, and caregivers of people living with serious mental illness may experience psychiatric crises, hospitalizations, dramatic changes in a loved one's behavior, uncertainty, fear, relationship disruption, or periods in which they have had to assume enormous responsibility.

You may love someone deeply while also carrying grief, anger, exhaustion, fear, or trauma related to what you have experienced alongside them.

I have a particular interest in supporting family members, partners, and caregivers navigating serious mental illness of their loved ones. When appropriate, EMDR can help process distressing experiences while therapy also addresses boundaries, relationships, grief, caregiving stress, and the complicated emotions that can accompany loving someone through significant mental health challenges.

What Does an EMDR Session Look Like?

EMDR is more than eye movements.

Before beginning trauma reprocessing, we spend time understanding what brings you to therapy, identifying the experiences or patterns that may be contributing to your current distress, and developing strategies for managing difficult emotions that may arise. We do not jump right into trauma reprocessing. First, we establish trust, safety, and connection within the therapeutic relationship and consider whether you have enough stability and support in your life to engage in this work safely.

If you are not yet ready for trauma reprocessing, that does not mean EMDR is not an option for you. Preparation is an important part of the greater EMDR process. We can work together to strengthen coping skills, build internal and external resources, address current stressors, and identify or develop the supports you may need before moving into trauma reprocessing.

I work collaboratively with each client to determine when they are adequately prepared for trauma reprocessing and tailor the pace and course of treatment to their individual needs. There is no expectation that everyone will be ready for reprocessing at the same point in therapy.  Each person’s therapeutic journey is unique, just like them!

EMDR therapy follows an eight-phase model that includes history taking, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation.

During the reprocessing phases, I may ask you to briefly focus on a memory, emotion, physical sensation, or belief while engaging in bilateral stimulation. This may involve guided eye movements or another form of alternating, bilateral stimulation.

You remain awake, aware, and in control throughout the process. EMDR is not hypnosis, and you can stop or pause at any time.

EMDR Therapy Is Individualized

There is no single timeline for EMDR therapy.

Some people come to therapy wanting to work on one clearly defined experience. Others have histories involving years of trauma, difficult relationships, chronic illness, loss, or experiences that overlap with one another.

For complex trauma especially, I do not believe in rushing into trauma reprocessing simply because someone has come to therapy asking for EMDR.

Preparation, trust, pacing, and understanding your individual nervous system matter. We will determine together when reprocessing makes sense, what experiences should be addressed, and how quickly we move to reprocess traumatic experiences.

EMDR is a structured therapy, but your treatment should never feel like you are being pushed through a protocol.

You Don't Have to Decide Whether It Was "Bad Enough"

Many people who come to trauma therapy minimize their own experiences.

Maybe someone else had it worse.

Maybe you were never physically harmed.

Maybe the medical procedure went technically "well."

Maybe you chose the relationship.

Maybe your job required you to handle difficult situations.

Maybe everyone around you seems to have moved on.

None of those things necessarily tell us how an experience affected you.

If something continues to show up in your emotions, your body, your relationships, your beliefs about yourself, or the way you move through the world, it may be worth exploring further in therapy.

Therapy does not require you to prove that your experience was traumatic enough to deserve attention.

EMDR Therapy in Florida, Pennsylvania & Delaware

I provide EMDR therapy primarily through secure telehealth appointments. In-person appointments are available to those in the Saint Petersburg / Tampa Bay area of Florida.

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in Florida and Pennsylvania and am registered to provide telehealth services to clients located in Delaware.

Whether you are seeking EMDR for PTSD, relationship trauma, medical trauma, chronic illness, reproductive trauma, occupational trauma, or an experience that is simply difficult to leave in the past, we can begin by talking about what is happening now and what you would like to change.

Is EMDR Effective Online?

Yes. Research supports the use of EMDR through telehealth, with studies showing promising outcomes for online EMDR and research comparing virtual and in-person treatment finding similar rates of treatment completion and dropout (Strelchuk et al., 2023).

In my experience, many clients prefer virtual EMDR because they can participate from the comfort and privacy of their own home. I use a secure telehealth platform that allows us to incorporate several forms of bilateral stimulation virtually, and we work together to find the approach that works best for you.

Ready to Learn More About EMDR?

You do not need to know whether EMDR is the right therapy for you before reaching out.

Part of my role is helping you understand your options and determine whether EMDR—or another therapeutic approach—is the right fit for your individual needs. While I bring clinical expertise to our work together, you remain an active participant in your treatment. We work collaboratively to help you find relief, empowerment, and move toward healing from the difficult experiences that have shaped you.

If past experiences continue to feel present in your life, I welcome you to reach out to learn more about EMDR therapy and whether we may be a good fit.