EMDR Therapy for Adults in Seattle, WA
Your body can catch up to what your mind already knows.
Other types of therapy have taken you as far as they can, but now you’re looking for something different.
You’ve been in traditional talk therapy for a few years now and things are no longer moving. You’ve put in plenty of time going in circles on the surface of things and now you’re ready to go deeper.
You don’t just want clarity, you want change!
What you really want is to move past awareness and into an ability to respond differently when hard things come up. You can explain all the reasons why you’re triggered, but your body still goes cold when you get a text from your mom. Try as you might to be present with your partner, when they reach out to touch you you instinctively jump away. Even with all the hours of discussing your childhood in therapy, when you’re in a high pressure situation you’re somehow 12 again trying to prove that you know what you’re doing. You don’t believe in the idea of sin anymore but sometimes you read a comment on social media and feel instantly pulled back into old shame.
EMDR is a powerful neuroscience-backed therapy that can shift understanding into transformation.
Processing painful experiences through EMDR can help you to break free from what’s holding you back and move you towards the good life you want.
EMDR therapy uses our brains’ neuroplasticity, tapping into our innate ability to change and heal. Using eye movements, tappers, or audio beats to wake up both sides of your brain (bilateral stimulation), we can “unstick” our stuck beliefs, releasing the power they have held.
Oftentimes we feel stuck because, through a traumatic experience, we came to believe something about ourselves or the world (like ‘the world is not safe’) that ramps up our nervous systems. We struggle to shift those deeply held beliefs because even if we can talk ourselves out of them, they still feel true. Our bodies are not convinced that it is possible to find safety.
EMDR works to understand those deeply held beliefs and where they first began, in order to shift to what we know to be true (like ‘I can find safety even in an unpredictable world’) and help our bodies to truly believe that. It literally makes neurological connections to essentially update the old beliefs with new information — like a software update for your computer. Then our nervous systems can function in a healthy way, responding to genuine threats and relaxing into calm states with more ease and flow.
What to expect
EMDR sessions follow this rhythm.
01.
We check in.
Before we dive into anything planned, I want to know how you’re arriving. Traffic, a rough morning, a fight you’re still carrying — all of it matters. We notice what’s present and decide together whether it shifts our focus for the day or whether we move toward the theme we’ve been working on.
02.
We clarify our focus.
Maybe we’re here to work on how you see yourself, or to move through a specific memory, or to explore what keeps getting in the way of real closeness. We find our entry point together.
03.
We go deep.
I’ll ask you to tune into what’s happening in your body, sensations, emotions, maybe an image or some words. You’ll use bilateral stimulation or movement, and we’ll let your brain do what it’s built to do. Things shift. The intensity of something that felt enormous can start to soften and move. You might find unexpected connections, more clarity, some relief.
04.
We reflect.
What feels different? When you bring up that memory or that old belief now, what happens? We name the shifts and let them land.
05.
We ground:
We listen to what your body needs, acknowledge the work that happened, and talk about what comes next.
I provide EMDR therapy in an extended or intensive session format. Click here to learn more.
EMDR Therapy can help you:
Have a tough conversation with your mom without it derailing your day
Stop punishing yourself every time a decision goes sideways
Actually enjoy your partner’s touch instead of bracing for it
Know your worth in your bones even when the world tells you otherwise
Shed the shame you were handed so you can live life fully on your own terms
Feel safe enough in your relationships to stop waiting for the other shoe to drop
Navigate conflict with a friend with authenticity and connection rather than explosion or withdrawal
A good life is possible. EMDR can help you live it.
Questions?
FAQs
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EMDR is an evidence based therapy that structures sessions to help provide containment and support for your nervous system as you process difficult feelings. It uses your brain’s capacity for healing and often shakes loose old beliefs that have stayed unconscious but continue to affect your life. EMDR therapy is a somatic therapy that helps you tune into your body’s sensations and learn how to shift from a distressed state into a more present state.
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We can do EMDR therapy without you ever sharing with me the details of traumatic experiences. It is important that we can track what is happening in the session, so I will ask whether things are changing, seeming to get better or worse, bringing up something else, that sort of thing. I do find people often feel safer or even want to put things into words as we go through the process, but it is not a requirement.
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EMDR is great for addressing themes in your life even if you can’t identify a specific experience! While it is often used for working through traumatic memories, it is a powerful tool in helping to identify why things are feeling stuck and then supporting integration of new beliefs. In fact, much of my work is focused on these broader areas.
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I offer extended 3 hour and intensive full day sessions. Check out how I structure my sessions here.
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The biggest benefit of extended and intensive sessions is the time to really dig deeply into an area of struggle without having to interrupt the process 45 minutes in. A three hour session gives us the opportunity to work through traumatic experiences or beliefs in one sitting instead of spreading it out over three weeks. This can feel better for your body as you move through the pain of trauma work in a really intentional space.
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I work with adults and specialize in working with the queer community. You can learn more about my approach here.
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Absolutely. Early attachment wounds are often at the root of deeply held beliefs that still hold power in our adult lives. You can read more about attachment here.
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I was first trained in EMDR in 2019 and became certified in 2025. I have completed numerous advanced EMDR trainings for working with complex trauma and dissociation, and I am currently in a Somatic EMDR certificate program as well as a Queer EMDR consult group.