EMDR Therapy in Berkeley

Evergreen Counseling is pleased to offer online EMDR therapy in Berkeley and anywhere in California to those seeking to use this powerful, evidence-based modality as a primary treatment modality or in conjunction with your regular talk therapy with your established therapist.

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing.

EMDR therapy is a widely researched, evidence-based, and neuroscience-informed integrative therapy that was discovered and further refined to reduce distressing emotional symptoms from a multitude of challenging life experiences including isolated and protracted traumatic experiences, phobias, and more.

Using bilateral stimulation (be it eye movements, alternating auditory sounds, or bilateral physical sensations — hand buzzers), EMDR works with and aids your brain’s natural impulse to synthesize and metabolize maladaptive memories and beliefs that are getting in your way.

EMDR, simply put, helps your brain and body do what it naturally wants to do: move towards healing.

What issues can EMDR therapy treat?

Whether it’s a single incident event like a car crash, sexual assault, or terrifying plane flight, or if it’s a complex and enduring series of events like ongoing, repeated neglect or disdain from an early caregiver, EMDR can work well in treating a wide variety of disturbing experiences and adverse life events.

Here is a partial list of issues EMDR can be effective in treating:

• Post-traumatic stress
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Phobias (such as flying, heights, public speaking)
• Performance anxieties (test taking, public performances)
• Medical traumas
• And more.

Can I do EMDR therapy if I’m already seeing a therapist?

Yes, absolutely. We can do adjunctive EMDR therapy in conjunction with your primary therapy work when it’s appropriate and wanted.

Oftentimes, in the course of regular talk therapy, you may “hit a wall” so to speak. Your treatment may feel stalled and or you may feel impeded by surfacing trauma memories that are outside the scope of your current therapists’ clinical training to treat.

In these times, seeking out adjunctive EMDR therapy makes sense and can support your work with your primary clinician. By identifying and targeting the surfacing memories, sensations, or limiting beliefs, short-term, intensive EMDR therapy can resolve and metabolize those issues to support forward progress in the rest of your therapy treatment.

Adjunctive EMDR therapy doesn’t replace your work with your primary therapist — it’s a supplement to that work that can greatly support you. Treatment will likely be shorter (4–12 sessions in nature) and your EMDR therapist can always collaborate with your primary therapist to support your treatment goals.

Do I have to work with you in person? Can we do EMDR online?

At this time, because of COVID-19, we are only offering EMDR therapy (as well as all therapy services) online.

And yes, EMDR when provided online is still effective. In fact, growing bodies of research suggest that EMDR therapy is still very effective when provided online.

Clients will be responsible for purchasing these “tappers” to support treatment and your EMDR therapist can walk you through this process. Learn more