EMDR Therapy for Trauma, PTSD, Anxiety, and Grief
EMDR Therapy in Westlake Village, CA
You can explain exactly what happened and why it affected you. That hasn't stopped the nightmares, the panic, or the way certain moments pull you right back to it. EMDR gets to the part that talking about it can't reach.
I've been in therapy for years, and I still can't talk about it without my whole body reacting.
That's not because you haven't tried hard enough. That's not because you need to talk about it more. That's because the memory is stuck in a part of your brain that doesn't respond to conversation. You can understand something completely and your nervous system will still react like it's happening right now. The understanding lives in one place. The trauma response lives somewhere else entirely. And no amount of explaining it is going to reach the part that's actually holding onto it.
That's what EMDR does. It gets to the place where the memory is stored and helps your brain move it from "this is happening to me right now" to "this happened to me and it's over." The facts don't change. What changes is that remembering stops taking over your whole body.
Something happened to you and you can't get past it. You've talked about it. You've gone to therapy. You've done the work of understanding why it affected you the way it did. And you still flinch at that sound. You still avoid that place. You still wake up at 3am with your heart racing over something that happened five years ago.
EMDR THERAPY FOR TRAUMA
WHAT IS EMDR THERAPY AND HOW DOES IT WORK
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It was developed in the late 1980s and has been extensively researched since then. It is recognized as an effective treatment for trauma and PTSD by the American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization, and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Here's what it actually looks like in my office.
We identify the memory or experience that's causing the most disruption in your life right now. Not every bad thing that ever happened to you. The specific one that your brain keeps pulling you back to, the one that shows up as nightmares, panic, avoidance, or a reaction that feels way too big for the situation in front of you.
Then we reprocess it. You follow a bilateral stimulation, which can be eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones, while your brain does the work of moving that memory from the place where it's stuck to the place where it can be stored as something that happened to you rather than something that is still happening to you.
You stay fully conscious. You're in control the whole time. I'm guiding the process but your brain is doing the heavy lifting. Most clients describe it as the memory losing its charge. The facts don't change. What changes is that remembering doesn't hijack your entire body anymore.
Who Is EMDR Therapy For?
-
Trauma and PTSD
A car accident. An assault. Childhood abuse. A medical emergency. Combat experience. Witnessing something you can't unsee. The event may have happened last year or thirty years ago. Your brain doesn't care about the calendar. If the memory is still activating your nervous system, EMDR can help it stop.
-
Grief that won't move.
ou lost someone and the pain is not softening with time the way people told you it would. You're stuck on a specific moment, the phone call, the hospital, the last conversation, and it replays on a loop. EMDR can help your brain process the loss so you can grieve without being trapped in one moment of it.
-
Anxiety rooted in past experiences.
Not every anxiety disorder starts with a single event. But a lot of anxiety has roots in something that happened, a humiliation, a rejection, a scary experience that taught your brain the world isn't safe. EMDR can get to the root faster than talk therapy alone because it goes directly to where the memory is stored.
-
Panic attacks.
If your panic has a trigger you can trace back to a specific experience, EMDR can target the memory driving the panic response. Clients often describe their panic attacks reducing in frequency and intensity after reprocessing the original event.
-
Health anxiety.
The constant symptom checking, the Googling, the need for reassurance. In many cases this pattern started with a specific health scare, a medical experience, or watching someone you love get sick. EMDR can target that original experience so your nervous system stops treating every physical sensation as an emergency.
-
Childhood wounds
Childhood wounds that keep showing up in adult relationships. You react to your partner, your boss, or your friend in a way that feels too big for what actually happened. That reaction is usually connected to something older. EMDR can help you trace it back, reprocess it, and stop responding to your current life from a place that belongs to your past.
-
Distressing memories
Distressing memories that won't stop replaying. Even when the event wouldn't qualify as "trauma" by most definitions, if a memory is intruding on your daily life and you can't make it stop, EMDR can help your brain file it where it belongs.
-
A negative belief about yourself
A negative belief about yourself that started somewhere specific. You're not good enough. You're too much. You don't deserve this. You know it's not true. Your body still believes it because an experience taught you that and the lesson never got corrected. EMDR targets the original experience so the belief stops running your decisions.
EMDR at Phasma is for you if...
𓇼 You've been in therapy before and you still react the same way when it comes up
𓇼 You understand what happened but your body hasn't caught up to what your brain already knows
𓇼 A specific memory keeps replaying, and you can't make it stop
𓇼 You're avoiding places, people, or situations because of something that happened
𓇼 You're having nightmares, panic attacks, or a physical response you can't explain
𓇼 You've tried talk therapy and it helped you understand but didn't change how you feel
𓇼 You want to process something specific, not spend months building up to it
𓇼 Your anxiety started after a health scare, a loss, or an experience you never fully dealt with
𓇼 You keep reacting to your partner, your kids, or your boss in ways that feel too big for the situation
𓇼 You're tired of managing it and ready to actually resolve it
How Is EMDR Different From Talk Therapy?
Talk therapy helps you understand what happened. EMDR changes how your brain holds it. That's the difference.
You can talk about something for years and still have the same reaction when it comes up. That's because the memory is stored in a part of your brain that doesn't respond to conversation. It responds to reprocessing.
I use both in my practice. We talk. We build trust. We figure out what's going on. And when we find the memory that's driving your symptoms, we go after it directly with EMDR instead of spending six more months circling it. After 16 years of doing this work, that combination is what I've seen produce the fastest, most lasting results.
You've carried this long enough.
Your brain just needs help finishing what it started.
Tell me what you're dealing with. I'll help you figure out if EMDR is the right next step.
parent support
FAQs
-
It depends on what we're working with. A single traumatic event in an otherwise stable life may resolve in 3 to 6 sessions. Complex trauma or multiple targets typically takes longer. I don't give guarantees on timelines because everyone processes differently, but most clients notice something shifting within the first few sessions.
-
Yes. EMDR is one of the most extensively researched treatments for trauma. It is recognized by the APA, WHO, and VA. Like any trauma therapy, it can bring up intense emotions during and after sessions. That's expected and it's part of the process. I pace everything to your capacity and we never move faster than you can handle.
-
You will connect with the memory, but EMDR is not about reliving it in full detail over and over. The bilateral stimulation helps your brain process the memory without getting stuck in it. Most clients describe it as watching the memory from a distance rather than being inside it again.
-
Often, yes. A lot of anxiety has roots in experiences that taught your brain the world isn't safe, even when those experiences don't look like "trauma" in the traditional sense. A humiliating moment in school. A parent who was unpredictable. A medical scare. EMDR can target those root experiences and reduce the anxiety that grew from them.
-
Yes. I work with teens on trauma, anxiety, grief, and distressing experiences using EMDR. The process is adapted for their developmental stage and I involve parents in the treatment planning.
-
Standard EMDR sessions are 50 minutes, typically weekly. EMDR intensives are 3 to 6 hours in a single sitting, which allows for extended, uninterrupted reprocessing. What might take 8 to 12 weekly sessions can sometimes be accomplished in one or two intensives. Both are effective. The right format depends on your situation, your goals, and your schedule.
Need MOre then 1:1 therapy
WHEN 50 MINUTES ISN'T ENOUGH TIME TO GET THROUGH WHAT YOU NEED TO GET THROUGH.
EMDR Intensives
A standard EMDR session gives you about 20 minutes of actual reprocessing after check-in and closure. An intensive gives you hours. We work for 3 to 6 hours in a single sitting so your brain can move all the way through the processing instead of stopping and restarting week after week. Most clients describe it as finally finishing something they've been trying to get to for months.
EMDR intensives are a good fit if:
𓇼 You've been doing weekly EMDR and keep running out of time in session
𓇼 You have a specific trauma or memory you want to resolve, not revisit for months
𓇼 You're tired of leaving sessions activated and sitting with it for a week
𓇼 You want to process something completely before a major life event or decision