EMDR and Trauma-Informed Therapy
Chicago-Based Telehealth Therapy Serving Residents in the Illinois, Michigan, and Florida
Specialized support for healing trauma and returning home to yourself.
If you feel pain from your past keeps holding you back—you’re not alone.
Trauma-informed care can help you move forward.
Previous painful experiences can color how you currently feel about yourself, your body, and your relationships. You may find that you have difficulties with feeling present either because your system is overactivated (e.g. constantly anxious) or underactivated (e.g. numb and disconnected). We believe you can re-stabilize and experience joy and connection again.
If you’re looking to stop the past from intruding on the present, please reach out.
Common signs and symptoms of trauma we can help you work through:
Intrusive thoughts or sensations
Emotional dysregulation and overwhelm
Significant shifts in world view or perspective (e.g.“No one can be trusted”)
Sense of disconnection from the body (e.g. numbness, forgetting to breathe, rest, or eat)
Negative beliefs about yourself (e.g. “I don’t deserve good things”)
Experiences of dissociation or feeling at times like the world or the self “isn’t real”
Inability to feel secure in relationships
Feelings of isolation
Sense of hopelessness about the future
Suddenly feeling “triggered” as though you are reliving the original experience, despite knowledge of what is true in the present
Our Trauma-Informed Approach
We approach trauma work with a non-pathologizing perspective, recognizing that the ways trauma has impacted you are not signs of weakness or failure. Many of the habits, thought patterns, and emotional cycles you struggle with today were once necessary survival strategies. While we honor that traumatic experiences may have shaped your self-identity, we believe that your true self—your essence—has not been lost or broken. It transcends those experiences and can be accessed again.
Our approach to trauma work is grounded in sensitivity and empowerment. We believe your inner wisdom and voice are essential resources in the path toward restoration. As such, you will be in control of your healing journey. You get to decide if, when, how, you share your story. You determine the pace and direction of your healing process, as well as the goals you set for yourself.
We use evidence-based techniques such as Eye Movement and Desensitization Therapy (EMDR), Internal Family System Therapy (IFS), and IFS-Informed EMDR. Additionally, we draw from attachment theory, mindfulness practice, somatic healing practices, and polyvagal theory to support clients throughout the healing process.
What is Trauma?
How our diagnostic manual defines it
The DSM-5 (the diagnostic statistical manual that therapists currently use) identifies trauma as “exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence.” In these terms, trauma can happen from directly experiencing any of these events, witnessing it occur to someone else, or learning about it happening to another.
How we define it
While the DSM-5 definition can be useful to some, modern leaders in the trauma field such as Dr. Resmaa Menakem define trauma differently: trauma is defined by the body and mind’s inability to fully process or cope with upsetting events because whatever is happening is too much, not enough, too fast, or too soon for what we need to feel safe, whole, and secure. We also understand an experience as traumatic by the way in which it typically evokes some combination of intense fear, hopelessness, and powerlessness. Put simply, trauma is not defined by the event, it’s defined by our response.
Is there hope for recovery?
Absolutely. We take steps toward recovery every moment that we engage in connective activities with others, move and treat our bodies with respect and care, and ground ourselves in the present moment. Trauma-informed therapy at NRCW, such as EMDR, IFS, SAFE EMDR and IFS-Informed EMDR, can help you better understand your triggers, reduce intensity of distressing symptoms, and even feel as though your traumatic experiences carry no more emotional weight than any of your other life experiences.
“What is split off, not felt, remains the same. When it is felt, it changes.”
-Eugene Gendlin
EMDR and your healing journey.
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EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy. It is a modality of therapy that uses bilateral stimulation (alternating stimulation of both hemispheres of the brain) to help “move” traumatic material that feels “stuck” or unprocessed. EMDR is experiential, which means it allows people to actively practice a new way to be with emotions and sensations. And through this practice, healing happens. After EMDR, intrusive memories and stories from the past become digestible in the present in a way beyond what typical talk therapy achieves.
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The process of EMDR first involves understanding if and how past emotional wounds may be impacting current challenges (e.g. how your ability to feel confident in yourself before a work presentation today may be related to an earlier trauma), and then exploring the types of skills and resources that will assist us in bravely approaching reprocessing traumatic material. Feeling prepared for processing will involve thoughtful guidance from your therapist on how to attune to what is happening inside so you can stay safe and grounded in the present while working with challenging memories from the past.
The “R” in EMDR stands for reprocessing because that’s what we do. We take traumatic material that is incomplete in its storage in our system and restore it to a new, better resourced state. This process typically involves use of bilateral stimulation (i.e. stimulation of both hemispheres of the brain in an alternating fashion through tapping, watching a light, or listening to gentle sounds). We will know when we’re done when you are able to revisit or even be reminded of the pain from trauma without losing your sense of stability or safety. In essence, your traumatic memories will feel as non-threatening as any other typical memory.
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Believe it or not, EMDR starts as soon as we begin identifying and practice accessing your strengths, resources, and skills. After all, trauma work is less about the bad things that have happened to us (or our loved ones, our community) and more about showing our hurt and wounded past self the wholeness and fullness of who we are now.
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At NRCW, we offer Somatic and Attachment-Focused EMDR (SAFE EMDR) and Internal Family Systems-Informed EMDR (IFS-informed EMDR), which allows us to move more efficiently and holistically through the EMDR process. Bringing in a somatic and attachment focus to EMDR helps us to better understand what is needed to engage in trauma processing from a grounded place as well as what meaningful themes we may want to focus on. IFS deepens the process by empowering you to support and find balance between different parts of your body and mind that may feel differently about the original event(s), how to cope with what was learned from trauma, and the goals of trauma processing itself. Put simply, we integrate multiple theories of understanding how trauma impacted your system so that we have multiple, evidenced-based ways to heal.
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You will always have choice in how we approach your goals. If you do not wish to use EMDR, we can work with trauma in other ways (for example, using IFS and somatic practice).
If you have tried EMDR before and it didn’t feel effective, that doesn’t mean it can’t work for you. Sometimes it takes a few different attempts before we discover the right method and style that works best for your system. We would love to facilitate your re-exploration and can adapt to better meet your needs. But, if what we’re doing isn’t making sense or isn’t feeling good we will be sure to pivot and help you get to the next right step.