EMDR therapy can help you work through distressing experiences that continue to affect how you feel, respond, or relate to the world—even when you understand intellectually that the experience is over.
Raising Consciousness provides online EMDR therapy throughout California, with treatment tailored to the individual rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Sometimes insight isn't the problem. You may already know why you react the way you do, recognize your patterns, or have talked about an experience many times—and still notice your body and emotions responding as though the past is happening now.
You might experience anxiety, panic, intrusive memories, avoidance, shame, difficulty trusting, emotional reactivity, numbness, or a sense of being stuck.
EMDR offers another way of working with experiences that haven't fully settled.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured psychotherapy approach designed to help people process distressing memories and experiences.
Rather than requiring you to repeatedly describe every detail of an experience, EMDR uses bilateral stimulation—such as guided eye movements or other alternating stimulation—while working with specific memories, beliefs, emotions, and physical sensations.
Treatment includes preparation and stabilization before reprocessing begins. Your therapist works collaboratively with you to identify appropriate targets and move through treatment at a pace that takes your needs and responses into account.
EMDR is often associated with trauma and PTSD, but distressing experiences can continue affecting people in many different ways.
EMDR may be incorporated into treatment for concerns such as:
Trauma and PTSD
Distressing or painful memories
Anxiety and panic
Negative beliefs about yourself
Shame or guilt connected to past experiences
Relationship or attachment wounds
Experiences of abuse or interpersonal violence
Triggers that feel disproportionately intense
Experiences that you understand intellectually but still feel emotionally stuck around
You do not need to decide on your own whether something “counts” as trauma before reaching out.
EMDR isn't simply beginning bilateral stimulation during the first appointment.
Treatment starts with understanding what brings you to therapy, identifying the experiences or patterns you would like to address, and determining whether EMDR is appropriate for your goals.
Your therapist will help you prepare for reprocessing and develop strategies for managing distress before working directly with identified targets.
During reprocessing, your therapist guides you through a structured process while you notice memories, thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations as they arise. The goal is not to erase what happened. Instead, EMDR aims to help distressing experiences become less emotionally disruptive in the present.
Yes. Raising Consciousness provides EMDR through secure telehealth sessions for clients located throughout California.
Online treatment also means you can participate from your own private space without traveling to an office. Your therapist will discuss how bilateral stimulation will be incorporated into your sessions and help determine an approach appropriate for you.
EMDR is a structured approach, but the person receiving therapy is not a protocol.
At Raising Consciousness, treatment is individualized around your goals, experiences, nervous system, communication style, identities, and the way you naturally process information.
EMDR may be used on its own or thoughtfully integrated with approaches such as parts work, ACT, CBT and DBT-informed strategies, somatic interventions, and mindfulness-based approaches when appropriate.
The goal isn't to force you into a particular way of doing therapy. It's to find a way of working that helps you move forward.
Raising Consciousness provides psychotherapy through telehealth to clients located throughout California.
Insurance and private-pay options are available. Coverage depends on your individual plan and the clinician providing treatment.
You don't need to know exactly where to begin. Tell us a little about what you're looking for, and we'll help determine an appropriate next step.