What Is EMDR Therapy?
If you've been carrying something for years—a memory that still tightens your chest, a pattern you can't seem to break, a version of yourself you had to become to survive—you may have heard someone suggest EMDR. Maybe a friend mentioned it changed their life. Maybe your own therapist brought it up. And maybe you're here because you want to know what it actually is before you commit to trying it.
Before EMDR Had a Name: Where Bilateral Healing Really Comes From
Before I explain how EMDR works clinically, I want to be honest about something: the idea that rhythm and movement can heal isn't new, and it isn't Western. It's something my own ancestors and other indiginous people understood long before 1987, when EMDR was formally developed. Naming that isn't a footnote for me. I am a descendant of the Rarámuri people of the Sierra Tarahumara in Chihuahua, Mexico. So much of what gets carried by first-gen and Indigenous-descended clients is the experience of watching your own traditions get renamed, dismissed, or rediscovered by someone else and handed back to you as new. I don't want to repeat that here.
While Francine Shapiro discovered EMDR and gave it a clinical name and structure - rhythmic, bilateral movement as a path to healing is far older than that. For generations, many Indigenous cultures around the world have used drumming, dancing, chanting, and other rhythmic, side-to-side movement as part of communal healing and grief practices—long before Western psychology had language for what trauma was, let alone how to treat it.
Some EMDR researchers and clinicians now point to this connection directly: the bilateral stimulation used in EMDR sessions may work in part because it echoes something the body already recognizes—rhythm, crossing the body's midline, alternating left and right. It's part of why EMDR, for many BIPOC clients, can feel less like an entirely foreign clinical technique and more like a return to something the body already understands.
I share this not to claim EMDR as an Indigenous practice, but to name its roots honestly. Modern trauma therapy is still catching up to healing wisdom that our communities have carried for a long time.
What exactly is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing—a structured form of psychotherapy developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s to treat trauma. In an EMDR session, a client briefly holds a distressing memory in mind while experiencing bilateral stimulation—usually guided eye movements, though some therapists use tapping or alternating tones instead. That bilateral stimulation appears to help the brain reprocess the memory so it's no longer stored with the same intensity.
In an EMDR session, you briefly bring a distressing memory to mind while experiencing bilateral stimulation—usually guided eye movements, though some therapists use tapping or alternating tones instead. That bilateral stimulation appears to help your brain reprocess the memory so it's no longer stored with the same intensity. The memory doesn't disappear. But it stops running your nervous system from the background.
Why EMDR Doesn't Require You to "Relive" Everything
One of the most common fears I hear before starting EMDR is “I don't want to have to talk about every detail.” I understand that fear deeply—especially for clients who've spent years being told to keep family matters private, or who've learned that opening up isn't safe.
Here's the relief: you don't have to narrate your trauma in detail for EMDR to work. Your nervous system does the processing; you're not required to explain everything out loud the way you would in traditional talk therapy.
Why I Use EMDR With First-Gen, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+ Clients
So much of what I hear in session isn't a single traumatic event—it's years of having to perform strength. Carrying family expectations. Translating for parents as a kid. Being the one who holds everyone together. Hiding parts of yourself to stay safe or accepted.
Talk therapy alone can help you understand those patterns. EMDR often helps you actually feel different—because the goal isn't just insight, it's changing how your body and nervous system respond when the old stuff gets triggered. For a lot of my clients, that's the missing piece: they already know why they overthink, or people-please, or brace for disappointment. EMDR helps that knowing finally reach the nervous system.
What EMDR Can Help With
EMDR is best known for PTSD, but it's used for a wide range of experiences, including:
Childhood emotional neglect or family dysfunction
Anxiety and chronic overthinking
Intergenerational and cultural trauma
Racism-related stress and microaggressions
Grief and complicated loss
Perfectionism and chronic self-abandonment
Identity-related stress, including coming out or navigating unaccepting family systems
What to Expect If You Start EMDR With Me
We won't start with reprocessing on day one. The first sessions are about building trust, understanding your history, and making sure you have grounding tools in place before we touch anything difficult. Healing isn't linear, and neither is this process—but it is structured, and you're never left without support between sessions.
I offer EMDR both in person at my Eagle Rock office and virtually throughout California, for adults and teens.
If You're Ready To Stop Carrying It Alone, I'd Be Honored To Help You Start.
Contact me to schedule a free consultation. I provide in-person EMDR therapy in Eagle Rock, CA and surrounding NELA neighborhoods (Highland Park, Glassell Park, Mount Washington, Pasadena, Atwater Village, South Pasadena), as well as virtual therapy throughout California.
