EMDR for Adults and Adolescents in Portland, Oregon

Resolve trauma. Recover trust in yourself.

 
 

Your past doesn’t have to get in the way of your future

Most people have either directly or vicariously experienced some form of trauma, whether it was a single event or something recurring, whether it was easily definable as trauma or something that felt like a matter of life and death even if it was not actually life threatening.

These experiences can affect people in different ways. Trauma stays lodged within us, but remains hidden from us, except for in the manifestation of its symptoms.

Perhaps you wonder why you can’t just move on from the past when it seems like it should be easy to do. Maybe you have difficulty trusting yourself or others and you feel unsafe. You may feel like you did something wrong or that the things that happened to you were your fault. You may feel like things just happen to you and that you don’t have control or assurance that you’ll be ok.

It can feel like something’s wrong with you, but what if nothing is wrong with you? What if you’re just having a natural response to the things that have happened to you or around you?

Trauma or aversive experiences can negatively shape our expectations of ourselves and the world around us. These experiences can affect our wiring and contribute to irritability, dread, or damaged self esteem.

Relationships can be impacted by the specter of past trauma, leading us to close off from each other when all we want to do is connect, or causing us to repeat patterns that keep occurring no matter how much we try to change.

Maybe we want more for ourselves- more engagement in life, more connection, more satisfaction- but we don’t expect that things could be better, or we aren’t sure that we deserve better. 

Together, let’s re-write your life story.

To be able to relax and enjoy the moment. To feel like you can trust, most importantly like you can trust yourself. To know unequivocally that you are a worthy human being, no matter what you’ve been through and no matter what you’ve done. To be able to connect. To feel safe. This is how you want to feel. It may seem out of reach, but with the right kind of support, it is possible.

I’m here to help you to:

  • Live in the present

  • Trust in yourself

  • Integrate all aspects of your life story

  • Move through the world with more ease

  • Recover sense of safety

  • Bridge past pain with current wisdom

  • Improve ability to relax

  • Increase sense of choice and freedom

  • Regulate your emotions

  • Process unresolved life events

FAQS

What others have wondered about trauma therapy

 

  • EMDR is an evidence-based trauma treatment that involves supported work on uncovering your history, guided discovery and strengthening of inner resources, trauma processing with the use of bilateral stimulation, and installation of an adaptive perspective to replace rigid expectations shaped by past pain. I have been practicing EMDR for 6 years and continually participate in training as an EMDR therapist.

  • A: Not necessarily. EMDR is well researched and has a good track record for effectiveness, but it is not the only method that I use for addressing effects of trauma. Cognitive behavioral therapy, Art therapy, and mindfulness are some of the other tools in my trauma treatment repertoire

  • A: If the issue that you are dealing with is rooted in the past, we will need to address the past. However, we can do this work at a pace that feels right for you, and there are ways to address difficult material that don’t require you to verbalize every detail of your experience.

More questions? Check out my FAQs page.

Ready to change your narrative?

Request a free consultation