EMDR THERAPY in Houston, TX, and NC

Once you and your therapist have completed history taking, decided EMDR therapy is a good fit, created a treatment plan, and prepared you for managing distress that may arise during processing, you will be asked to focus on a specific event. You will be asked a set of questions that are designed to:

•bring that event to the ‘front burner’ of your brain

•define what makes the issue so upsetting to you

•measure how upsetting it is to you at this moment

•identify what you’d like to believe when processing is successful

You will then work through the event in ‘sets’ using side-to-side eye movements, taps, or sounds. After each set, you will be guided to notice what comes to mind and told where to begin in the next set. These sets are repeated until the event is a lot less disturbing, negative, inaccurate, or unhelpful ways of thinking shift, and the body feels calm.

EMDR therapy does not require that you talk about your stressor in detail, although you will be asked to call it to mind in session. Trained EMDR therapists know how to guide you properly through this process and can further explain all the things that happens in EMDR therapy. See the FAQ below to learn more about what a certified EMDR therapist is.

Please do not try to do EMDR on your own—it is not recommended.

EMDR Therapy requires specialized training. Providers must complete an initial ‘basic training’ that typically consists of 5 - 6 full days of seminar and practice. These ‘basic trained’ providers know the basics of EMDR and can typically handle simple cases.

However, to do EMDR Therapy well, continued practice of EMDR and advanced trainings beyond the initial basic training are an absolute must! The majority of people I’ve met don’t come to therapy with ‘simple’ issues. On top of that, a provider can complete all requirements to be considered ‘basic-trained’ in EMDR and yet have never used EMDR on an actual client.

A Certified EMDR Therapist has intentionally pursued and achieved a higher level of expertise and mastery with EMDR. The EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) regulates this certification process and providers who are designated as ‘Certified’ by EMDRIA have met certain criteria, for example:

• Fully licensed in their field

• Have at least 2 years of experience in their field

• Completed an EMDRIA-approved basic training

• Conducted at least 50 EMDR sessions with at least 25 clients

• Completed at least 20 hours of consultation with an Approved Consultant focused on their use of EMDR with clients

• Complete at least 12 hours of EMDR Advanced trainings during each certification renewal cycle

It is possible to become a good EMDR provider and not become certified (I’ve known a few excellent ones) but to do so, the provider must be dedicated to the craft and regularly pursue advanced trainings to expand their EMDR skill set.

Although not a perfect indicator, EMDRIA certification allows potential clients some measure of assurance that the provider is committed to more than just basic knowledge of EMDR Therapy and has demonstrated some level of expertise as an EMDR practitioner.

I was basic trained in EMDR in 2014 and became an EMDRIA-Approved Certified Provider in 2017. In 2024 I achieved the next level of expertise in EMDR and earned the designation of EMDR Approved Consultant.

EMDR therapy has been researched extensively and is recognized as an effective, evidence-based psychotherapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) with lasting effects. In fact, EMDR is considered one of the 'gold standard' treatments for trauma and PTSD.

BUT THAT'S NOT ALL! Additional research on EMDR Therapy provides emerging evidence that EMDR is able to reduce or eliminate symptoms of many other conditions. For instance, EMDR has been successfully used to help clients with:

• Grief/Loss

• Nightmares

• Motor vehicle accidents

• Natural disasters

• Traumatic labor and delivery

• Race-Based Traumatic Stress

• Sexual Orientation-Based Traumatic Stress

• Unexplained medical symptoms and sensations

• Stress Management

• Anxiety/Fears/Phobias

• Panic Attacks

• Attachment Disorders

• Physical, Emotional, & Sexual Abuse

• Childhood Trauma

• Being shamed by a parent, teacher, peer, or authority figure

• Self-Esteem Issues

• Feeling unlovable

• Abandonment by a parent

• Family conflict

• Feeling rejected

• Difficult life decisions

• Humiliation at home, work, or school

• Critical parent

• Addiction

• Dissociative Disorders

• Eating Disorders

• Boundaries/Relationship problems

• Self-doubt

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

• Performance enhancement for sports, business, & relationships

• Any other painful experience or disturbing memory

It’s highly likely. EMDR addresses the psychological and physical symptoms stemming from adverse life experiences. It can be effectively utilized for:

• Resourcing: We will work to strengthen internal resources while soothing parts of you that feel limited. EMDR utilizes images, emotions, body sensations, and positive cognitions to increase feelings of calm, safety, and confidence.

• Resolving relationship difficulties: Attachment-focused EMDR works to repair unmet development needs (often called attachment wounding) when we have experienced an absence of care/neglect or abuse.

• Trauma recovery: While I often utilize EMDR for clients with big “T” trauma (e.g., a major car accident, assault), I also support clients with small “t” traumas (e.g., chronic or ongoing stressful conditions, such as interpersonal conflict, difficult parents, financial stress). One of the most overlooked aspects of small ‘t’ traumas is their accumulated effect. Multiple, compounded small ‘t’ traumas may lead to distress in the nervous system and trouble with emotional functioning.

• A variety of other conditions as noted here [link to EMDR page]

EMDR is a form of adaptive information processing which helps the brain evolve from limiting beliefs. EMDR may avoid some of the long and difficult abreactive work often involved in the treatment of anxiety, panic attack, post-traumatic stress symptoms (such as intrusive thoughts, nightmares, and flashbacks), dissociative disorders, depression, phobias, identity crises, and other adverse experiences.

Research in neuroplasticity demonstrates that our brain has the ability to change, create new neural pathways, and produce new neurons. Because the brain has this ability to change, we have the ability to change our way of thinking and improve mood. Neural pathways in the brain are strengthened with repetition. One way to describe this process is “neurons that fire together, wire together.” Constant repetition of an experience leads to changes within the brain’s structure and how the neurons process that experience. EMDR utilizes our brains’ neuroplasticity to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections, which allows the brain to compensate for injury and adjust to new situations.

The short answer is ‘it depends.’ Length of treatment varies widely and will depend upon a client’s unique history, needs, and goals. At times, recovery can occur within a few sessions (e.g., single issue) but in other instances it could take a year or more (e.g., complex childhood trauma).

Some factors that impact how long therapy takes include:

• Client’s goals for therapy: Some people focus on reduction of daily symptoms so their day-to-day life gets easier or they are able to function in a job or relationship. Others seek deeper healing of symptoms and patterns that no longer serve them as well as personal growth.

• Type, timing, and severity of disturbing events. Single event traumas in adulthood tend to move toward recovery more quickly and easily than childhood trauma or chronic/repeated trauma. Therapy tends to take longer if you experienced multiple instances of maltreatment or were particularly vulnerable at the time of the event(s). Also, if the harm was done by someone who was supposed to take care of you or someone you trusted, the injury will likely be deeper and require additional attention to repair. Recovery can also be impacted by whether a person was able to successfully “escape” or “fight back” during a difficult experience and whether the experience violated a person’s moral code. That all being said, sometimes the absence of things that were supposed to be there (i.e., emotional neglect during childhood) can take even longer to recover from.

• History of other trauma. Unresolved trauma in our past can slow recovery and may need attention too.

• Support systems. Lack of support after a traumatic experience or currently can impact symptom onset and severity and can complicate recovery.

• Lifestyle and coping skills. Good self-care (sleep, eat, exercise, healthy coping skills, etc…) can impact duration of trauma treatment.

• Co-occurring conditions. The presence of other medical and emotional conditions (e.g., depression, certain personality styles, substance use disorders, etc.) may require longer treatment.

So, this means that it isn’t possible to give you a definitive answer to the question of how long EMDR therapy takes, but you may have some sense of ‘longer vs shorter’ duration given how your history and experiences match up to the information provided above.

My goal is to help you meet your therapy goals as quickly as possible. As a part of this, we will have ongoing discussions about estimated treatment length, and we will regularly review changes you are noticing between sessions and progress you’ve made toward your therapy goals.

EMDR may produce results more rapidly than in conventional talk therapy, but speed is not the goal—healing is, and every client has different needs. That all being said, clients and I are continually amazed at how quickly change can occur with EMDR.

Yes! It’s called Adjunct EMDR Therapy. I partner with primary therapists and their clients to target specific issues. Adjunct therapy is typically short-term and in an intensive format. Learn more here.

Sometimes talk therapy is enough. Lots of folks see benefits with it, and there are some great evidence-based ‘talk therapies’ out there. Talk therapies can provide support and validation, allow you to gain insight into your problems, teach coping skills, and help you learn ways to change thought patterns and behaviors that don’t serve you. However, for many, regular talk therapy only goes so far and doesn’t address the underlying issue, so doesn’t resolve the current problems.

When there is trauma in our past (and that’s a lot of us, at least on some level big or small), support, insight, and understanding aren’t typically enough. You see, talk therapy works when the parts of the brain that involve rational thinking are on-line, allowing the person to engage in logic, reasoning, and meaning making. The issue with talk therapy is that it attempts to engage parts of the brain that go ‘off-line’ both during a trauma and when the body is in distress because the brain has been hijacked by the upsetting memory in the moment. Imagine, trying to engage in rational thinking when your body feels like it is under attack and your ‘thinking brain’ has gone off-line.

It's better when therapy can reach and calm the deeper parts of the brain and body where the trauma and traumatic distress are held. Unfortunately, talk therapy (which focuses on the higher-level/frontal/rational parts of the brain) is not great at changing these deeper parts. Treatment methods that are able to target and soothe these deeper regions of the brain are known as ‘bottom-up processing’ and are often more helpful than ‘thinking through’ things (aka ‘top-down processing’ & aka ‘talk therapy’) when it comes to calming the effects of trauma.

EMDR Therapy is one of the ‘bottom-up’ treatment methods. It targets the deeper regions of the brain and body where trauma is held. The bilateral stimulus used in EMDR stimulates physiological changes consistent with relaxation/decreased arousal which allows for a calming effect, and this helps the prefrontal cortex ‘get back online’ and aid in processing. EMDR engages both sides of the brain, allowing for integration of the cognitive and emotional parts of your experience, and EMDR has a way of syncing up what the head knows and what the heart feels, which is very important because no matter how hard we try, we often can’t think ourselves into feeling better or believing something that doesn’t feel true.

No. When done correctly, there is a lot less talking in EMDR than in traditional talk therapy. EMDR does not require that you talk in detail about the disturbing event. It can be helpful for the therapist to know the gist of what happened during the event, but it is actually not necessary in most cases.

No. EMDR does not erase or get rid of memories. However, we know from over 30 years of research that memory reprocessing using EMDR Therapy results in the removal of the disturbance, ‘gut punch,’ or ‘charge’ connected to the memory and changes the way the memory is held in the brain and the body. As a bonus, negative self-beliefs connected to that memory will organically shift during processing and be replaced with more accurate and adaptive self-beliefs.

A processed memory may seem to fade, feel harder to pull up, or feel “more distant”, but it is still there within reach if you want to recall it.

Yes & maybe temporarily.

If you are working with a trained EMDR provider who has expertise in the issues you are working on, EMDR is safe.

Sometimes when processing a painful memory, you may feel worse before you feel better. That is normal and actually true for any psychotherapy (not just EMDR). This is why one phase of EMDR is preparation for memory processing. Preparation involves (1) assessing your ability to manage big feelings or any temporary increase in symptoms that may occur between sessions and (2) teaching any needed calming, grounding, soothing, and containment skills.

Be honest with your therapist about ways you cope with stress and symptoms and how well you do so. Many clients want to rush the preparation phase and dive into memory processing, but that’s not recommended and can make things worse for you.

Hang in there, and remind yourself that it’s only temporary and you’ve already been through the hardest part (the thing that happened). It’s soooo worth it.

Here are some well-respected sources of information on EMDR Therapy:

*www.emdria.org

*www.emdr.com

*https://www.emdr.com/research-overview/

*https://www.emdr.com/frequent-questions/