Discover EMDR Therapy in Seattle
Understanding your trauma didn’t heal it… EMDR can help.
Experience our somatic and mindfulness-based approach to EMDR, which is an evidence-based, collaborative, and effective form of therapy.
What is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an evidence-based, research-driven therapeutic approach that has gained widespread practice in recent decades. The structured, eight-phase therapeutic process works to reframe traumatic experiences, distressing memories, and other negative emotions.
EMDR serves as an effective treatment option for a variety of mental health issues rooted in past trauma, including anxiety, PTSD, substance abuse, and more. Through extensive resourcing skills and interventions, EMDR therapy creates a sense of safety within the nervous system. Trauma is reprocessed through bilateral stimulation (engaging both sides of the brain), similar to how the brain sorts through material from the previous day when we’re in REM sleep. EMDR allows the client to metabolize trauma by maintaining one foot in the safety of the present moment while reprocessing past material during bilateral stimulation. Negative beliefs are swapped out with positive beliefs.
$260/session
Why EMDR Therapy?
Since EMDR focuses on reprocessing past negative experiences, it can be applied to a wide range of mental health struggles. In addition to trauma and PTSD, we can also use EMDR to effectively treat anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, grief, chronic pain, and nightmares, among other symptoms.
We work with clients who have tried talk therapy before without seeing any significant shift. For many of these individuals, EMDR has proven to be the missing link. In contrast to the “top-down” method of talk therapy, EMDR allows us to practice a “bottom-up” approach that is at once mindfulness-based, somatic-oriented, and trauma-focused.
-
Developed in the late 1980s and first introduced in 1989 by Dr. Francine Shapiro, EMDR has amassed countless individual practitioners in the time since. Significant institutions, like the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, and the World Health Organization, have recognized the effectiveness of EMDR as well.
EMDR has also received repeated academic studies indicating its efficacy. According to the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA), for example, EMDR therapy was assessed as “the most cost-effective intervention for adults with PTSD.”
In this way, EMDR offers a practical, accessible, and affordable treatment option for various trauma-related challenges. EMDR is also particularly versatile because it can be done both in person and virtually with the same positive results. Whether you experienced complex PTSD (repeated exposure to trauma) as a child or one significant event that has impacted you since, EMDR can help you reprocess, heal, and move forward with your life.
Although the EMDR process advances through eight distinct phases in each session, it’s also a creative treatment process that can be tailored for individual needs and adjusted along the way. By applying bilateral eye stimulation, your EMDR therapist invites you to recall troubling memories, emotions, and sensations—and then desensitizes these triggers by stimulating both sides of your brain while you connect with feelings of safety and calm in the present moment.
EMDR is often supplemented with somatic interventions, mindfulness-based practices, and occasional talk therapy to process what has arisen. Once a treatment plan has been developed around your specific needs, you will proceed through the eight phases of EMDR.
-
History Taking: You will review your trauma history with your therapist and identify the “targets” (or memories/experiences) to reprocess.
Preparation: You will learn and practice several resourcing skills for the difficult emotions that may arise during the reprocessing phase.
Assessment: You will be invited to actively recall negative beliefs, memories, images, or sensations relating to the trauma to “light up” the nervous system.
Desensitization: Your EMDR therapist will employ bilateral stimulation techniques as you explore and reprocess your thoughts and emotions.
Installation: You and your therapist will identify a positive belief to replace the previous negative belief and install it.
Body Scan: Your EMDR therapist will invite you to do a body scan to identify any lingering negative feelings or sensations relating to the trauma.
Closure: You will be invited to return to a state of relaxation while assessing the progress of the session.
Reevaluation: At the beginning of the following session, your therapist will review your overall progress, and together you will readjust your goals moving forward.
The purpose of this process is to desensitize your internal triggers from past trauma while creating real change in the way your nervous system responds to present or future triggers.
When practiced in combination with somatic therapy, ketamine therapy, and the tenets of Polyvagal Theory, EMDR helps you calm your own nervous system and create a place of safety within yourself. This, in turn, allows you to manage habitual fight, flight, or freeze responses, which can help improve relationships, build confidence, and reduce emotional reactivity.
-
Since EMDR focuses on reprocessing past negative experiences, it can be applied to a wide range of mental health struggles. In addition to trauma and PTSD, we can also use EMDR to effectively treat anxiety, depression, eating disorders, substance abuse, grief, chronic pain, and nightmares, among others.
We work with clients who have tried talk therapy before without seeing any significant shift. For many of these individuals, EMDR has proven to be the missing link. In contrast to the “top-down” method of talk therapy, EMDR allows us to practice a “bottom-up” approach that is at once mindfulness-based, somatic-oriented, and trauma-focused.
EMDR therapy helps to soothe the nervous system and heal the root issue.
What to Expect
Getting StartedSchedule a Consultation Call
We offer complimentary consultation calls to all new clients. We’ll ask you about issues you are currently experiencing and describe our therapeutic style and modalities. If, for some reason, we determine that it’s not the best match, we’ll provide other recommendations. If it feels like a good match, we’ll go ahead and schedule your intake.
Preparing for Your SessionsComplete Paperwork
All paperwork and payment methods will be filled out electronically. It’s a quick process and should take no more than 10-15 minutes. Please fill this out before we meet for the first time. If we’re meeting virtually, you’ll get a separate email with a telehealth link from us.
Creating a ContainerYour Intake
Intake sessions are 60 minutes and cover as much of your history as possible. Intakes are more structured than other sessions; we take detailed notes to focus on where you’ve been and the direction you’d like to go. Sharing so much of your history within a short amount of time can feel like a lot, so be sure to schedule some time for self-care following the session.
How Does EMDR Therapy Help?
Cumulatively, our team has over 10 years of experience providing EMDR therapy to clients, with each team member already certified or on the certification path. Our team of skilled clinicians has received somatic, mindfulness-based training, which they incorporate into all their EMDR work with clients.
Our team primarily uses EMDR to treat complex trauma and PTSD, but we believe in its versatile application to a wide variety of mental health challenges. Typically, we utilize EMDR in conjunction with other somatic, mindfulness-based therapies, as well as ketamine therapy, when appropriate.
We believe in a unique orientation to the therapeutic journey that applies evidence-based principles with creativity and play. Combined with EMDR therapy, somatic therapy, and ketamine therapy, we incorporate Polyvagal Theory and its unique ability to help stabilize the nervous system.
By cultivating this sense of safety within your own nervous system while tapping into the emotional and somatic channels, you will get to live an embodied and present life.
Check out our blog to learn more about EMDR therapy.EMDR Therapy FAQs
-
We’re an out-of-network provider, which means we do not bill your insurance company directly, but can provide a receipt for the sessions you paid for, called a Superbill, upon request. You can submit this to your insurance provider for any out-of-network benefits you may have, and they may issue a reimbursement check. We recommend contacting your insurance company before beginning therapy to find out what your out-of-network benefits are.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
We accept credit, debit, and HSA cards. We will request that you provide your payment information in a secure client portal before our intake so that we can charge you upon completion of our session. We will provide an invoice each time a payment is processed, and we are happy to provide a Superbill upon request.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
It is hard to give a prescriptive recommendation to everyone, but we have found that EMDR/trauma therapy usually requires a minimum of 12 sessions to target less complex traumas. In order to create a safe and secure container (e.g., the therapeutic relationship), we need enough time to cover the full eight-phase process of EMDR. In the beginning, we will cover skills and practice resourcing techniques for you to try at home. We will cover your trauma history and intentionally choose trauma “targets.” As we complete each target, we move to the next one. The length of the course of treatment depends on trauma history and the number of targets to cover.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
We request at least 48 hours’ advance notice if you wish to cancel or reschedule your session.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
Our Seattle office is located at 1811 Queen Anne Ave N., Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98109.
We also offer virtual therapy throughout Washington, Oregon, and Colorado for clients who prefer online sessions.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
Schedule a complimentary consultation call where we’ll discuss what brings you to therapy and determine if our approach is the right fit. If it feels like a good match, we’ll schedule your 60-minute intake session to begin building your personalized treatment plan.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
Yes! We use a service called Thrizer to verify your out-of-network benefits before you start therapy. Simply enter your insurance information here, and Thrizer will provide a detailed breakdown of your coverage, including your deductible, out-of-network reimbursement rate, and estimated out-of-pocket costs.
This helps you understand exactly what your insurance will cover before your first session, so there are no surprises.
-
$260/session
We are glad to submit Superbills upon request, but we do not take insurance.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
We return inquiry emails within one business day, Monday through Friday. Inquiries received on Friday late afternoon or evening are addressed on Monday. Please check your junk mail or spam folders if you have not heard from us within that time frame.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
EMDR is designed to work directly with the nervous system to re-pattern habitual responses to stress and challenge negative beliefs. This process supports neuroplasticity and allows the brain to make new connections while old pathways crumble. Talk therapy tends to stay in one channel, the “cognitive” channel, and tends to exclude the others, like the “somatic” and “emotional” channels. When we stay in our heads, we do not allow the body to move trauma through and out. Research shows that trauma is stored in the body, so it is key in effective trauma therapy that we engage the body and nervous system. When we continue to talk and use the same old pathways in our brain, we are not allowing the body to release stored trauma and the brain to change.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
Therapy is most effective when you’re genuinely ready to do the work of healing and open to exploring body-centered approaches. Our complimentary consultation helps determine if our trauma-informed, somatic approach aligns with what you’re seeking, and we will be honest about whether we’re the right fit or can recommend other resources.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
-
We specialize in ketamine-assisted therapy, EMDR, and somatic therapy for trauma, PTSD, treatment-resistant depression, and anxiety. Our approach is body-centered and nervous system-informed, working with adults who are seeking genuine transformation rather than just symptom management.
To schedule a consultation call, please use this booking link.
Work with Us