Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing

EMDR isn’t just a therapy—it’s a way to release what feels stuck. It’s a gentle process that helps you move through the memories and emotions that have held you captive, transforming them into something lighter, something you can carry without pain.

Developed by psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, EMDR is a powerful tool designed for those who’ve experienced traumatic events, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). By addressing the way these memories are stored in the brain, EMDR creates space for healing, clarity, and freedom.

EYE MOVEMENT DESENSITIZATION AND REPROCESSING

What actually is  EMDR?

Trauma can feel like an echo that never fades, but EMDR helps quiet that echo. It works by integrating distressing memories into the broader memory network, softening their intensity and impact.

The process targets three key areas:

  • The traumatic memory itself, helping you untangle its hold.

  • The negative beliefs and thoughts tied to that memory, offering a new perspective.

  • The physical sensations or emotions connected to it, creating space for relief and calm.

EMDR focuses on the present—on how past experiences are showing up in your life now and how they might affect your future. It offers you the tools to navigate these triggers and begin rewriting the way they shape your story.

What Makes EMDR Different?

EMDR works with the brain’s natural ability to heal, helping you take what feels fractured—memories, emotions, sensations—and weave them into something whole. It’s a process of learning and integration, where past experiences are gently updated with the present, allowing you to let go of what no longer serves you.

This process is rooted in The Adaptive Information Processing Hypothesis, which sees the brain as a constantly evolving system—reconciling, reshaping, and restoring memory networks to create clarity and calm.

EMDR focuses on what feels stuck: the inability to process experiences that continue to cause distress. By using techniques like bilateral stimulation (eye movements, alternative tapping, or sounds), EMDR helps organize these memories—much like digestion. We keep the nutrients we need, release the waste, and emerge lighter, freer, and more adaptive.

EMDR isn’t just about resolving the past—it’s about creating space for growth, for presence, and for a future where you feel whole again.

THE EIGHT PHASES OF EMDR

✴

THE EIGHT PHASES OF EMDR ✴

PHASE ONE

History & Treatment Planning

The first phase is a history-taking session during which the therapist assesses the client’s readiness for EMDR and develops a treatment plan. Client and therapist identify possible targets for EMDR processing. These include recent distressing events, current situations that elicit emotional disturbance, related historical incidents, and the development of specific skills and behaviors that will be needed by the client in future situations.

PHASE TWO

Preparation

During the second phase of treatment, the therapist ensures that the client has adequate methods of handling emotional distress and good coping skills and that the client is in a relatively stable state. If further stabilization is required, or if additional skills are needed, therapy focuses on providing these. The client is then able to use stress-reducing techniques whenever necessary, during, or between sessions. However, one goal is not to need these techniques once therapy is complete.

PHASE THREE

Assessment

In phase three through six, a target is identified and processed using EMDR procedures. These involve the client identifying the most vivid visual image related to the memory (if available), a negative belief about self, related emotions, and body sensations. The client also identifies a preferred positive belief. The validity of the positive belief is rated, as is the intensity of the negative emotions.

PHASE FOUR

Desensitization

During EMDR therapy, clients focus on a troubling image and sensations while tracking the therapist's fingers moving across their visual field, potentially using auditory or tactile stimuli as alternatives. This session phase is customized, lasting typically 20-30 seconds. Clients are asked to observe arising thoughts and feelings, and the therapist guides the focus based on their feedback. This process repeats throughout the session, with support provided if distress arises.

PHASE FIVE

Installation

When the client reports no distress related to the targeted memory, the clinician asks him/her to think of the preferred positive belief that was identified at the beginning of the session, or a better one if it has emerged, and to focus on the incident, while simultaneously engaging in the eye movements. After several sets, clients generally report increased confidence in this positive belief.

PHASE SIX

Body Scan

The therapist checks with the client regarding body sensations. If there are negative sensations, these are processed as above. If there are positive sensations, they are further enhanced.

PHASE SEVEN

Closure

In phase seven, closure, the therapist asks the client to keep a journal during the week to document any related material that may arise and reminds the client of the self-calming activities that were mastered in phase two.

PHASE EIGHT

Re-Evaluation

The next session begins with phase eight, re-evaluation of the previous work, and of progress since the previous session. EMDR treatment ensures the processing of all related historical events, current incidents that elicit distress, and future scenarios that will require different responses. The overall goal is to produce the most comprehensive and profound treatment effects in the shortest period of time, while simultaneously maintaining a stable client within a balanced system.

Personalized EMDR Therapy Packages

Embark on a journey of healing, one session at a time. Each package is thoughtfully curated to meet you where you are, offering a path to process what feels heavy, transform it into resilience, and reclaim your sense of self. Whether you're addressing recent stressors or untangling deeper wounds, these sessions are designed to guide you toward empowerment, balance, and emotional clarity.

1 Session | $300

This session offers a perfect introduction to the transformative powers of EMDR. We’ll assess and address your immediate concerns, creating a space to start untangling what feels overwhelming.

A gentle beginning.

3 Sessions | $825

In three sessions, we’ll begin to uncover the layers of your experience, working through complex emotions with care and compassion. Together, we’ll create a foundation for healing and clarity.

Step deeper into your story.

6 Sessions | $1,650

Six sessions allow us the time to navigate multiple challenges and create lasting shifts. This package is designed to help you move forward with a sense of strength and overall well-being.

A journey toward transformation.

10 Sessions | $2,750

Our most comprehensive package is for those ready to commit to deep, lasting change. Across ten sessions, we’ll work toward meaningful breakthroughs, helping you achieve the highest level of healing and self-discovery.

Profound healing and growth.

5 Hour In-Person EMDR Intensive | $1,750

Conducted at the serene Meridian location, this intensive experience offers privacy, comfort, and focused care. Choose to stay at the Meridian for a retreat-like setting, where I’ll come directly to your hotel for each session. Together, we’ll dive into your healing journey in an immersive, transformative way.

A retreat for your soul.

Frequently Asked Questions

  • No, during EMDR processing, the client is present and fully in control of the experience.

  • Overall Treatment Planning

    Clients come to treatment expressing concerns.

    The clinician will help the client understand the dynamics of the present concerns and how to adaptively manage them.

    An overall treatment plan will be developed that will accomplish the client goals.

    Within that treatment plan, EMDR therapy, along with other therapy approaches, will be used to accomplish treatment goals.

    EMDR Procedures

    The client will be instructed, through a set of questions, to access and activate the negative experience and the desired adaptive resolution.

    Sets of rapid eye movement (or other forms of bilateral stimulation) will be applied.

    The client is encouraged to just “free associate” and allow the brain to work through the experience.

    Sets of eye movements will be alternated with brief client reports of what is being experienced.

    EMDR processing will continue until the past experience has been updated to an adaptive present perspective.

    With long standing issues, this process may take multiple sessions.

    Integration

    Once the disturbing experiences have been processed, the client and clinician work together to integrate these new insights and perspectives into their daily life.

  • No, full disclosure of the experience is not necessary for the experience to be processed.

  • Yes – emotions and sensations may come up during processing, although the client will be prepared and safely managed by the clinician during processing.

  • EMDR therapy , as with all treatment approaches, will help clients accomplish their treatment goals.

    The length of time that it takes is dependent upon the client’s complexity.

    Frequently EMDR therapy is only one of several treatment interventions used to accomplish the client’s treatment goals.

  • EMDR was a Ph.D. dissertation treating PTSD, written by Francine Shapiro that was published in 1989.

    After publishing her findings, numerous clinicians treating clients with PTSD sought training in the procedures outlined.

    Shapiro began teaching others her procedures, and over the course of time, 1990-1995, she refined and expanded her procedures.

    EMDR became an official treatment approach in 1995 when she published her training manual: EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, Protocol and Procedures.