EMDR Therapy in Chicago
Helping you process difficult experiences and beliefs that insight alone hasn’t fully shifted.
Sometimes you know something intellectually, but your emotional response hasn’t caught up.
You know you’re safe now, but your body still reacts as though you aren’t. You understand why a relationship affected you, but you continue to feel triggered by similar situations. You know you’re capable, but a deeply held belief that you are inadequate, unsafe, or unlovable continues to show up.
EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — is an evidence-based therapy designed to help the brain and nervous system process distressing memories and experiences that continue to feel unresolved.
I integrate EMDR into individual therapy when talking and insight alone have not created the change you are looking for.
EMDR therapy is available in person in Lincoln Park, Chicago and virtually throughout Illinois and Washington.
What can EMDR help with?
EMDR is often associated with major trauma, but an experience does not have to feel dramatic or catastrophic to continue affecting you.
EMDR may be useful when you are dealing with:
a painful or frightening past experience
anxiety connected to particular memories or triggers
relationship wounds or betrayal
negative beliefs about yourself
rejection or humiliation that still feels emotionally charged
grief or loss
medical experiences or procedures
a recent traumatic or distressing event
recurring emotional reactions that feel bigger than the present situation
patterns you understand intellectually but still struggle to change
How EMDR Works
When an experience has not been fully processed, parts of it can continue to feel present long after the event is over.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation — often eye movements — while you attend to aspects of the memory, emotion, body sensation, or belief connected to the experience.
Over time, the memory can become less emotionally activating and more integrated into your broader life story.
The goal is not to erase what happened. It is to help the experience feel like something that happened in the past rather than something your nervous system is still responding to as though it is happening now.
EMDR Within Ongoing Therapy
EMDR does not have to be a separate type of therapy.
For many of my clients, I integrate EMDR into relational and attachment-based therapy as it becomes useful.
Some sessions may involve EMDR processing. Others may focus more on relationships, current stressors, insight, emotional regulation, or preparation for deeper work.
The treatment is individualized rather than following a rigid protocol.
EMDR can be used within traditional weekly therapy sessions or in a longer intensive format.
Weekly EMDR may make sense when the concerns you are working on are connected to broader ongoing patterns or when you want EMDR to be one part of longer-term therapy.
An EMDR intensive may be a better fit when there is a more specific experience or concern you want to process in a concentrated period of time.
Weekly EMDR or EMDR Intensive?
Ready to Learn More?
A complimentary consultation gives us a chance to talk about what you would like help with and whether EMDR therapy may be a useful part of your treatment.