EMDR & Trauma Therapy
What this work is, how it's done, and what you deserve to know before we begin.
Trauma therapy and Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) specifically is some of the most meaningful work I do. It is also some of the most misunderstood. Before we begin, I want you to have a clear, honest picture of what this process involves, what it can genuinely offer you, and where its boundaries are. That clarity protects you and allows us to do this work without confusion about what it is for.
EMDR Is
- An evidence-based trauma treatment
- Recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), American Psychological Association (APA), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
- A clinical healing process
- Designed to reduce distress and restore function
- Delivered within a confidential therapeutic relationship
EMDR Is Not
- A forensic evaluation
- A memory verification process
- Evidence of what happened to you
- A substitute for a forensic mental health assessment
What the Process Actually Looks Like
EMDR works in eight phases from history-taking and preparation through active trauma processing and integration. No processing begins until you are prepared and stable. Every session ends with a return to equilibrium. You will not leave a session ungrounded.
The work can surface strong emotions, physical sensations, unexpected memories, and vivid dreams between sessions. This is normal. It is the nervous system doing what it needs to do. You will be given grounding and stabilization tools before any processing begins, and you are encouraged to use them.
The pace of this work is determined clinically, not by urgency, not by external timelines, and not by what might be useful to document for any other purpose. Healing does not operate on a specific calendar.
The work can surface strong emotions, physical sensations, unexpected memories, and vivid dreams between sessions. This is normal. It is the nervous system doing what it needs to do. You will be given grounding and stabilization tools before any processing begins, and you are encouraged to use them.
The pace of this work is determined clinically, not by urgency, not by external timelines, and not by what might be useful to document for any other purpose. Healing does not operate on a specific calendar.
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Recent Events Protocol
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Somatic & Attachment Focused EMDR
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When Something Just Happened
Standard EMDR is designed for memories that have had time to consolidate - events from months or years ago that the brain has organized into a relatively stable, if distressing, narrative. But what happens when the trauma is fresh? When the trauma was last week, within the last few months, the loss is still raw and immediate? This is where the Recent Events Protocol comes in and it is clinically quite different from standard EMDR.
Protocol Recent Events / R - TEP
Why recent trauma requires a different approach: When a traumatic event has occurred within roughly the past two to five months, the memory has not yet fully consolidated. Rather than a single coherent target, it exists as scattered fragments - images, sounds, physical sensations, emotional flashes - that are not yet integrated into a complete narrative. Approaching it with a standard EMDR protocol designed for consolidated memory can be ineffective or destabilizing.
The Recent Traumatic Episode Protocol (R-TEP) was developed specifically to address this fragmented quality. Rather than processing one central target image, it works through the episode as a whole - moving through the fragments as they arise, with a strong emphasis on containment, safety, and the client's ability to stay grounded throughout the process.
What this looks like in practice: Sessions are paced carefully and follow the client's lead rather than a fixed sequence. There is more time spent in preparation and stabilization. The clinician is tracking not just the processing of the memory but the client's nervous system state in real time - slowing down, pausing, or shifting to grounding when activation becomes too high. The goal is to prevent the trauma from crystallizing into chronic PTSD symptoms, not to push through at a pace the system cannot hold.
Who this is for: The Recent Events Protocol is appropriate when a client has experienced a traumatic event in the relatively recent past and is presenting with acute stress symptoms - intrusive memories, hyper-arousal, avoidance, emotional flooding, difficulty functioning - before those symptoms have become entrenched. Early intervention, done carefully, can meaningfully change the trajectory of how trauma settles into the nervous system. It is also appropriate when a client has an established therapeutic relationship and a new traumatic event occurs during the course of treatment.
OFTEN APPROPRIATE FOR: Accidents & Injuries, Acute loss, Medical Trauma, Natural disasters, Sudden life disruption, Acute grief, Witnessing trauma
One thing worth saying plainly: the recency of a traumatic event does not change the clinical or legal nature of EMDR treatment. Recent Events Protocol is still a clinical therapeutic intervention - not a documentation process, not a forensic assessment, and not a method for establishing what happened.
The Recent Traumatic Episode Protocol (R-TEP) was developed specifically to address this fragmented quality. Rather than processing one central target image, it works through the episode as a whole - moving through the fragments as they arise, with a strong emphasis on containment, safety, and the client's ability to stay grounded throughout the process.
What this looks like in practice: Sessions are paced carefully and follow the client's lead rather than a fixed sequence. There is more time spent in preparation and stabilization. The clinician is tracking not just the processing of the memory but the client's nervous system state in real time - slowing down, pausing, or shifting to grounding when activation becomes too high. The goal is to prevent the trauma from crystallizing into chronic PTSD symptoms, not to push through at a pace the system cannot hold.
Who this is for: The Recent Events Protocol is appropriate when a client has experienced a traumatic event in the relatively recent past and is presenting with acute stress symptoms - intrusive memories, hyper-arousal, avoidance, emotional flooding, difficulty functioning - before those symptoms have become entrenched. Early intervention, done carefully, can meaningfully change the trajectory of how trauma settles into the nervous system. It is also appropriate when a client has an established therapeutic relationship and a new traumatic event occurs during the course of treatment.
OFTEN APPROPRIATE FOR: Accidents & Injuries, Acute loss, Medical Trauma, Natural disasters, Sudden life disruption, Acute grief, Witnessing trauma
One thing worth saying plainly: the recency of a traumatic event does not change the clinical or legal nature of EMDR treatment. Recent Events Protocol is still a clinical therapeutic intervention - not a documentation process, not a forensic assessment, and not a method for establishing what happened.
When Trauma Lives in the Body and in Relationships
For many people, the most significant wounds are not from a single event but from a lifetime of relational experience - the chronic stress of growing up in an environment where safety was unpredictable, where connection was unreliable, where the body learned to survive by staying vigilant, contracted, or disconnected. This kind of developmental and relational trauma does not respond in the same way to standard EMDR.
Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR - known as S.A.F.E EMDR - was developed to address exactly this. It integrates the core EMDR framework with somatic awareness, attachment theory, and nervous system regulation in a way that makes the people process safer and more effective for people with complex trauma histories.
Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR - known as S.A.F.E EMDR - was developed to address exactly this. It integrates the core EMDR framework with somatic awareness, attachment theory, and nervous system regulation in a way that makes the people process safer and more effective for people with complex trauma histories.
Protocol S.A.F.E. EMDR - Somatic & Attachment Focused
What makes it different: Standard EMDR targets discrete memories. S.A.F.E. EMDR expands that framework to include the body's stored experience of trauma and the relational patterns that developed in response to early wounding. The work is informed by Polyvagal Theory - the understanding that the nervous system in ways that affect every relationship, every moment of life.
The somatic component means that the body is actively included in the healing process - not just as something that registers distress, but as an intelligent system that holds trauma and that can participate in its resolution. Clients learn to notice and work with physical sensations, to track how their body responds during processing, and to use somatic awareness as a guide for when to slow down, stay present, or redirect.
The attachment component addresses the relational origins of many trauma patterns. For clients whose earliest experiences involved inconsistent caregiving, emotional unavailability, or ruptures in the parent-child bond, S.A.F.E. EMDR works with the attachment wounds underneath the presenting symptoms - the deep beliefs about safety, belonging, and worth that formed before language, before conscious memory, in the body and in relationship.
The preparation phase is longer and more deliberate. Before any trauma processing begins, significant time is spent building internal resources - a felt sense of safety, stabilization tools rooted in the body, and a therapeutic relationship strong enough to hold what the processing will bring up. For people with complex trauma (C-PTSD), this phase is not a preliminary step to get through - it is therapeutic work in its own right.
OFTEN APPROPRIATE FOR: Developmental trauma, Complex PTSD, Childhood neglect or abuse, Attachment wounds, Relational trauma, Chronic shame, Nervous system dysregulation, Dissociation, Identity disruption
The somatic component means that the body is actively included in the healing process - not just as something that registers distress, but as an intelligent system that holds trauma and that can participate in its resolution. Clients learn to notice and work with physical sensations, to track how their body responds during processing, and to use somatic awareness as a guide for when to slow down, stay present, or redirect.
The attachment component addresses the relational origins of many trauma patterns. For clients whose earliest experiences involved inconsistent caregiving, emotional unavailability, or ruptures in the parent-child bond, S.A.F.E. EMDR works with the attachment wounds underneath the presenting symptoms - the deep beliefs about safety, belonging, and worth that formed before language, before conscious memory, in the body and in relationship.
The preparation phase is longer and more deliberate. Before any trauma processing begins, significant time is spent building internal resources - a felt sense of safety, stabilization tools rooted in the body, and a therapeutic relationship strong enough to hold what the processing will bring up. For people with complex trauma (C-PTSD), this phase is not a preliminary step to get through - it is therapeutic work in its own right.
OFTEN APPROPRIATE FOR: Developmental trauma, Complex PTSD, Childhood neglect or abuse, Attachment wounds, Relational trauma, Chronic shame, Nervous system dysregulation, Dissociation, Identity disruption
S.A.F.E. EMDR:
- Addresses memory, body, and relational patterns together
- Extended preparation and resourcing phase
- Actively incorporates somatic and nervous system awareness
- Designed for complex, developmental, and relational trauma
This page describes the clinical and policy framework of this practice. It does not constitute legal advice and is not a substitute for the written intake agreements provided at the start of treatment.