Specialized EMDR Therapy in NYC
When our prior experiences remain unprocessed, they can continue influencing how we feel long after the event itself has passed. EMDR helps address those experiences in a different way.
You might recognize that a relationship is healthy and still feel anxious, guarded, or that something is still bound to go wrong.
You might understand where your people-pleasing comes from and still struggle to set boundaries.
You might know that one mistake doesn't define you and still feel overwhelmed by self-criticism.
EMDR Therapy Can Help With
How Is EMDR Therapy Different From Talk Therapy?
Traditional talk therapy can be incredibly valuable in helping people gain insight, identify patterns, and better understand themselves.
EMDR takes a different approach in that it helps the brain and nervous system process experiences that may still feel emotionally charged or unresolved. This means that memories and difficult emotions will still exist, but they won’t carry the same charge that they held before.
Many people notice that they feel less reactive and panicked, and more in control of their emotions and able to respond to situations from the present rather than from old experiences.
Relationship Patterns
Trauma
Anxiety + Overthinking
Depression
Stress + Emotional Reactivity
How Does EMDR Work?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. During EMDR therapy, you'll work collaboratively with your therapist to identify and resolve experiences, memories, beliefs, or situations that continue to create distress, overwhelm, or other dysregulating feelings.
EMDR helps people process the information within these experiences in a very different way than traditional talk therapy. The structure of EMDR doesn’t require you to retell every detail of what happened; in fact, one of its benefits is that you don’t have to talk about the trauma directly at all. That’s incredibly powerful for people who feel shut down or overwhelmed putting their distressing memories into words.
The Core of EMDR is Bilateral Stimulation
Tactile tapping: Alternating taps on the left and right side of the body, often with handheld buzzers or by crossing the arms.
Auditory tones: Beeps or sounds that alternate between the left and right ear through headphones.
Eye movements: Tracking a therapist’s fingers or a light bar side to side.
The idea is that this alternating input mimics the brain activity that happens during REM sleep, a stage of sleep where emotional processing takes place. By activating both hemispheres of the brain, bilateral stimulation allows stuck memories to be accessed, re-evaluated, and stored more adaptively.
So you’re still focused on the memory, but the stimulation helps soften the intensity and allows your brain to create new associations. You don’t “forget” what happened, but you’re able to remember what happened without feeling like you’re being emotionally hijacked by the past. The memories feel more distant and less emotionally charged.
Read more here if you’d like to learn more about EMDR and what to expect in an EMDR therapy session.
Natalie Dupre
Therapist
- Self-Reliant Overachievers
- Emotional Burnout + Exhaustion
- Overgiving + People-Pleasing
Jacob Mergendoller
Senior Therapist & Founder
- High-Performing Perfectionists
- Therapy for Men
- Work Stress + Burnout
FAQs
Some people make this assumption, due to the back-and-forth eye movements shared by both exercises. But EMDR is not hypnosis. You remain fully aware and in control throughout the process.
There are eight stages of EMDR, with each stage building on the last.
1. History-taking
Your therapist learns about your background and identifies target memories to work on.
2. Preparation
You develop coping strategies and grounding techniques to help regulate your emotions.
3. Assessment
You identify the specific image, negative belief, emotions, and body sensations connected to the target memory.
4. Desensitization
You engage in bilateral stimulation while recalling the memory, allowing distress to decrease over time.
5. Installation
You strengthen a positive belief to replace the old negative one (e.g., “I am safe now” instead of “I’m powerless”).”
6. Body Scan
You check for any lingering tension or activation in the body and process it as needed.
7. Closure
You return to a state of stability before ending the session. This helps prevent emotional spillover.
8. Reevaluation
At your next session, you and your therapist assess progress and decide whether to continue with the same memory or move on.
No. While EMDR is widely known for treating trauma and PTSD, it can also be helpful for anxiety, depression, difficult life experiences, relationship patterns, chronic stress, and negative beliefs about yourself. Many people seek EMDR because they feel stuck in recurring emotional reactions, even if they don't identify with having experienced a single traumatic event.
Many people who benefit from EMDR don't describe their experiences as "trauma." Growing up with constant criticism, emotional neglect, high expectations, bullying, difficult relationships, or prolonged stress can shape how you think, feel, and respond long after those experiences are over. During your consultation, we'll explore what's bringing you to therapy and whether EMDR may be an appropriate approach.
There's no one-size-fits-all answer for how long EMDR will take. The number of sessions depends on your goals, the experiences you're working through, and whether EMDR is being used on its own or alongside ongoing therapy. Some people notice meaningful shifts after addressing a specific memory, while others benefit from longer-term work to process multiple experiences and longstanding patterns.
Take the Next Step
If you're curious about EMDR specifically, or you’re just tired of trying to process experiences on your own without seeing any real change, let’s talk. We're happy to share more information about our approach and help you explore whether EMDR makes sense for your goals.
Schedule a consultation to learn more and how we can help.
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