Personal Statement

I specialize in helping people who have tried traditional talk therapy without relief. You may have an intellectual understanding of what happened to you, but still feel the hurt. Lots of people go many years successfully blocking out what's happened to them, but find that the memories come back later in life, and that's where I can help.

If you find that those events or memories are now affecting your ability to fully enjoy life, I am pleased to be able to offer a completely different approach to clearing out the past. It's called EMDR and you may have heard about its success in treating major trauma from combat, accidents, etc., but it's not just for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder).

I define trauma as "anything that has happened to you that changed the way you feel about yourself or about your 'place' and safety in the world." So even if you feel that you've dealt with what happened, if it still causes emotional pain, there's a way to clear it away once and for all. EMDR is the most fully researched trauma treatment and is approved as a Class A method by the Veteran's Administration, so you can be assured that it is an evidence-based method of treatment, one that has proven its worth over the last 20 or so years.

EMDR helps remove the painful emotions from trauma memories-- no more getting hijacked by "triggers" as you go through your day. Those memories and experiences shaped how you think about yourself, and that can affect your ability to find and maintain healthy relationships. If an experience, even in childhood, has made you feel insecure or somehow defective, it will affect how you relate to others. You may find that others complain that your reactions to some things are "over the top" --this is probably due to your being unknowingly triggered to those early negative experiences.