EMDR Therapy in Virginia Beach
You've probably heard of EMDR, maybe more than once. Maybe you've had a friend who had a transformative experience with EMDR or you've come across it mentioned on TikTok (no judgment). You may sense that prior experience- something you've probably already addressed and thought was sufficiently resolved - may be shaping the present in ways that feel disproportionate, stuck, or out of control. If you are wondering if EMDR is the next right step for you, you've landed in the right place.
What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an extensively researched, evidence-based psychotherapy approach originally developed for the treatment of trauma and PTSD. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR doesn’t require you to narrate your experience in detail. In fact, it does not require you to even remember a specific incident in any detail. This is not about "recovered memories."
Instead, it works directly with the way distressing memories (images, sensations, beliefs, and so forth) are stored in the nervous system and helps the brain finish what it couldn’t complete on its own. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (most commonly eye movements, though I typically use a tactile "tapper" option for in person sessions) to activate both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously. EMDR works with dual attention. Pairing eye movement (or holding the tappers) along with awareness of the memory creates the conditions for the nervous system to affirm that the danger is no longer happening.
Research supports that EMDR facilitates the brain reprocessing memories in such a way that normal, adaptive information processing is resumed. One leading theory on how EMDR works is that this process mirrors what happens during REM sleep, when the brain naturally consolidates and processes the day’s experiences. For memories that were too overwhelming to process at the time of the event, EMDR creates the conditions for that processing (and adaptive storage) to finally occur.
The result is not that the memory disappears or that a "bad memory" is suddenly a good one. Rather, it’s that it loses its charge. What once felt raw, present, and destabilizing becomes something you can hold with more distance and less pain. Clients often describe the experience as the memory feels "wrapped in cotton" or "further away."
I commonly use EMDR to help clients dissolve limiting, negative core beliefs that develop as the result of relational or developmental traumas, or a particular traumatic experience. For a more detailed explanation please visit EMDRIA at https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/
What EMDR Can Help With
EMDR was originally established as a treatment for PTSD, but its applications have expanded significantly.
As an EMDRIA Certified EMDR Therapist, I use EMDR to support clients navigating:
Trauma and PTSD to include single-incident trauma, complex or repeated trauma. Trauma is experienced in a highly individualized way: The events, memories, and thoughts that continue to ping you are real.
Complex PTSD and relational wounds This includes developmental trauma, childhood neglect, attachment injuries, and the long shadow of growing up in an environment that wasn’t safe or consistent. Even if your caregivers were loving and doing their best, attachment injuries can occur. These experiences often show up as chronic shame, difficulty trusting others, or a persistent sense of not being enough.
Grief and loss especially when grief is entangled with trauma, shock, or the circumstances of how a loss occurred, EMDR can help the nervous system process what the mind hasn’t been able to integrate. This includes traumatic bereavement, sudden loss, and pet loss. Read more about grief and EMDR here
Anxiety and panic including panic attacks, phobias, performance anxiety, and anxiety that seems to arrive without an obvious trigger. Often beneath anxiety is a memory or belief the nervous system is still trying to protect you from.
Couples work (EMDR-informed) Infidelity can be experienced as a trauma in the nervous system and can make progress in repairing a relationship challenging without EMDR. Relational ruptures, attachment injuries within partnerships, and partners' "raw spots" or recurrent negative self beliefs can all be addressed and resolved with EMDR. EMDR-informed couples work helps partners understand how their individual histories are showing up between them within their negative cycle to further shift the work from blame to collaboration.
Distressing beliefs that won’t budge sometimes the concern isn’t a diagnosable condition. Sometimes it is a block in daily functioning that doesn't quite make sense - holding onto money, fear around checking the mailbox. Underneath these distressing habits typically lies a belief like I’m not good enough or I’m not safe that you can challenge with logic, but it persists in its refrain. EMDR works within this uncertainty, at the level where insight alone hasn’t been enough.
What to Expect in EMDR Therapy
EMDR is an eight-phase treatment model, which means there is real structure to the work and real preparation before any processing begins. We don’t dive into difficult material before you have the resources and stability to navigate it. The early phases focus on history-taking, identifying target memories and beliefs, and building the internal capacity to do the deeper work safely.
This is where I may incorporate an understanding of ego state or "parts of self." Paradoxically, although we can crave relief, even positive change can feel destabilizing. It is a common occurrence that even the most consistent, punctual client may start to miss sessions when it comes to reprocess. We will take the time to ensure all of you is ready and feels heard, seen, and supported.
Although sessions may feel different from traditional talk therapy, I employ a relational approach. You can expect to regularly check in with your goals and your shifting beliefs around them at a pace that is suitable for you.
EMDR is not typically a quick fix. The shifts are often felt in experiencing something that would have caused a certain reaction or distress in the past and realizing "I didn't even think twice about that." The distressing experience is stored adaptively, and accordingly our response is changed for good. The negative beliefs fall away. Clients often describe feeling, "I don't connect with that belief anymore at all."
For many people it moves things that years of talking hadn’t touched. That said, you don't have to give up your talk therapist to work with me. Read more about intensives here
Is EMDR Right for You?
If you’ve been in therapy before and feel like you understand your patterns but can’t seem to change them, EMDR may offer a different entry point. If you know something happened that shaped you but can’t access it through words alone, EMDR may help. If your body holds the story more than your mind does, EMDR was essentially designed for that.
If you are looking for an EMDR therapist in Virginia Beach (or virtually throughout Virginia, FL, SC, and ME) I offer a free 15-minute consultation to talk through what you’re carrying and whether EMDR feels like a fit. I'm happy to answer questions to see if EMDR might help you live a life that feels more like you.