Therapy & EMDR for Trauma and Difficult Experiences in Chicago
When something is over, but it still doesn’t feel settled.
Not every experience that affects us fits neatly into the word “trauma.”
Maybe you went through a breakup, betrayal, loss, accident, illness, medical procedure, frightening event, or another experience that you thought you would have moved past by now.
You may be functioning well in most areas of your life while still feeling unexpectedly triggered, anxious, numb, angry, or emotionally stuck when something reminds you of what happened.
Therapy can help you understand what your nervous system is responding to and process the experience so that it begins to feel more firmly in the past.
What Might I Have Experienced?
Perhaps you’ve experienced one or the more of the following:
a breakup or betrayal
grief and loss
pregnancy loss or infertility-related experiences
an accident
an illness or medical procedure
witnessing violence or frightening events
a painful professional or workplace experience
panic attacks or other destabilizing episodes
rejection, humiliation, or failure that remains emotionally charged
other recent or past experiences that continue to affect you
You Don’t Have to Decide Whether It Was “Traumatic Enough”
You may notice:
intrusive thoughts or memories
feeling activated by reminders
avoiding situations connected to what happened
numbness or emotional shutdown
anxiety that feels disproportionate to the present moment
changes in how you see yourself or other people
difficulty trusting again
a sense that you should be “over it” but are not
Regardless of how you label what happened, what matters is whether the experience still feels unresolved and continues to affect you.
How EMDR Can Help
Talking about what happened can be important, but sometimes understanding the experience is not enough to change the way your nervous system responds to it.
EMDR can help the brain process memories and emotional material that continue to feel unresolved.
Rather than trying to convince yourself that you are safe or should feel differently, EMDR helps the experience become more integrated so that reminders of it are less emotionally activating.
EMDR can be incorporated into ongoing individual therapy or used in a more concentrated intensive format.
Therapy at Your Pace
Trauma processing does not mean immediately diving into the most painful experience.
We first make sure you have enough internal stability, support, and resources to engage with difficult material safely.
Depending on your needs, our work may include grounding, nervous-system regulation, relational therapy, EMDR, or simply making sense of what happened before any deeper processing begins.
A complimentary 15-minute consultation gives us a chance to talk about what still feels unresolved and consider whether individual therapy, EMDR, or an EMDR intensive may be the best fit.
In-person therapy is available in Lincoln Park, Chicago, with virtual therapy throughout Illinois and Washington.