EMDR

Danielle Pinals is an EMDR therapist in Massachusetts who helps adults heal from narcissistic relationships

My clients often share that they feel lost inside, stuck in the past, or have difficulty trusting themselves. When we feel overwhelmed by anxiety, burnout, or complex trauma, we carry the impacts in our body, which can look like gut health issues, exhaustion, and chronic pain. EMDR is a somatic, evidence-based therapy that alleviates these symptoms. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation through eye movements, auditory stimuli, or tapping to help your brain complete the healing process that stressful past events often disrupt. Many clients leave EMDR sessions feeling clarity of mind and centered in their body.

Getting Unstuck With EMDR

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Danielle Pinals is an EMDR therapist in Boston, MA who helps adults heal from narcissistic relationships

What Makes EMDR Different From Talk Therapy?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. EMDR is a structured approach that allows clients to process painful memories in a contained, calm space. Many of the clients who reach out to me have spoken at length about their experiences in talk therapy, which has helped them understand the root of the problem, but they continue to feel unresolved and frustrated. Don’t allow overwhelm or stress to hold you back any longer. You deserve to feel a sense of inner calm, self-trust, and restoration.

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FAQs

  • EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy. The eye movements allow your brain to focus on a task that keeps you in the present moment while you simultaneously process memories from the past. This prevents the overwhelm that many people feel when re-visiting traumatic experiences from the past. It also creates a contained space in which you are able to gain perspective on past experiences by reflecting on them from a calm state of mind. Visit my blog to learn about the 8 Phases of EMDR.

  • Yes, EMDR is evidence-based and is recognized internationally as an effective treatment for PTSD through organizations such as the American Psychiatric Association, World Health Organization, and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Research can be found on www.emdria.org

  • EMDR is a structured therapy that primarily has been used to help individuals heal from trauma, but can also treat issues such as anxiety, depression, burnout, people-pleasing, shame, relationship wounds, and perfectionism.

  • Yes, complex trauma is often caused by repeated, ongoing events as opposed to PTSD which is typically caused by a singular event. Symptoms of C-PTSD can include dissociation, hypervigilance, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, self-limiting beliefs, relationship difficulties, anxiety, and depression. These symptoms can be treated using EMDR therapy.

  • Yes, relationships with narcissistic and emotionally immature individuals typically leads to complex trauma. EMDR is one of the leading trauma therapy approaches that can provide healing from the effects of this type of relationship.

  • EMDR therapy offers ways to process and heal even if you can’t remember specific traumatic events! Explicit memories are experiences we can verbalize, but implicit memories are a “felt” sense that something is wrong or a visceral reaction to triggers. If, during a session, you can’t recall a specific memory, we will typically access emotions, physical sensations, and/or triggers that are tied to your present distress.

  • No. EMDR is known as a “somatic” therapy, which means we are less concerned with intellectualizing and more focused on relieving the trauma you’ve been carrying. The body keeps the score, meaning we need to partner with the body (this is where the eye movements come in!) in order to allow for deep processing and healing work to happen. This does not involve reviewing trauma at length or in detail.