EMDR Therapy
In Glendora & online therapy across CA
How EMDR Therapy Can Help Heal Even The Deepest Wounds
Trauma can rewire your brain in unhelpful ways. Maybe you were once confident, spontaneous, and outgoing. Now, it’s like you’re a different person. Suddenly, you struggle to believe in your own worth, or you feel ashamed, as if you’re letting people down.
The world probably seems like a dangerous place now, and you’re wary of trusting anybody anymore—not even yourself, really. And although you know you’re not at fault for what happened, you may still find yourself turning your blame inward. Most days, it can feel like you’re trapped in a loop, unable to escape the past or move on in any way—because that’s what trauma does to you.
When you experience trauma, the memory can get trapped in your mind and body in its worst state, playing on repeat throughout your entire nervous system. That residual stress, fear, and anxiety can affect your well-being in complex ways that traditional or cognitive talking strategies can’t fully address.
This Is Where EMDR Therapy Comes Into Play
Because EMDR—or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing—is a holistic, bottom-up approach to therapy, it can directly target and resolve deep wounds. Rather than focusing solely on telling the story and rationalizing everything, EMDR goes directly to the root cause of the distress.
Ultimately, it helps you build new neuropathways—new ways of thinking and processing information—that allow you to become more grounded, resilient, and psychologically flexible. With that new sense of security and confidence, you can safely and fully process your experience by being with what happened and working through it, which will enable you to finally move forward in your life.
As a therapist and the founder of Revive Life Counseling, I use EMDR as a core part of my approach to supporting individuals struggling to overcome trauma, many of whom are women. Oftentimes, that trauma stems from adverse childhood experiences, such as neglect or physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, so I do a lot of work around those themes and healing the inner child as well.
In addition to treating trauma and PTSD, I’ve used EMDR for anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, relationship issues, codependency, and burnout. It’s a brief, structured, and versatile treatment option that can address a range of issues—and it works well alongside other modalities.
How Do I Approach Eye Movement, Desensitization, And Reprocessing Therapy?
My work is deeply informed by a specific type of EMDR therapy called AF-EMDR (Attachment-Focused EMDR). Like its parent modality, AF-EMDR involves an eight-phase protocol that starts with learning more about you and your developmental history. We can talk in more detail about EMDR, address any fears or concerns you have, and explore your therapy goals.
Because sessions can sometimes involve working with painful memories or experiences, resourcing is a huge part of AF-EMDR. That means I’m going to help you tap into your strengths, resilience, and inherent capacity for self-regulation, while providing you with skills and strategies to maximize those qualities. Together, we’re going to light up and link these resources.
Once there’s sufficient safety and resourcing in place, we’ll begin the EMDR reprocessing phase. I’ll have you focus on a specific memory, experience, or bodily sensation you want to work on. We’ll begin bilateral stimulation to help unlock your brain’s natural capacity to heal and adaptively rewire how it processes information.
Bilateral stimulation is just a fancy way of referring to strategies we might use in therapy to engage both sides of the brain, including tactile (self-tapping, hand pulsators), visual (rapid eye movements), and/or auditory (alternating sounds) stimulation. When you focus on a specific memory and engage in alternating bilateral stimulation, this can fundamentally change how you relate to the past.
Following AF-EMDR, you’ll be able to recall your experience without the unpleasant sensations, negative beliefs, or undesirable behaviors tied to it. That, in turn, will ultimately empower you to move on with your life without fear or painful memories holding you back.
How Effective Is This Alphabet-Soup-Sounding Approach To Therapy?
Although it might be a mouthful, AF-EMDR is super effective, especially for treating relational-based trauma. Originally developed by Dr. Laurel Parnell to address early attachment wounds and heal developmental deficits, Attachment-Focused EMDR therapy is based on five principles:
• Ensuring clients feel safe and supported at
all times
• Establishing a strong therapeutic
relationship
• Taking a client-centered approach to
treatment
• Strengthening internal resourcing to repair
developmental deficits
• Following a modified EMDR protocol
EMDR itself is extremely effective as well, with some studies suggesting upwards of 77 to 100 percent success rates for treating PTSD, depending on the nature and severity of the trauma. Because it targets the core issues causing distress and provides relief within a few sessions, EMDR is considered much more effective than traditional talk therapy alone. Moreover, a longer treatment is likely needed if addressing complex trauma.
What Are The Added Benefits of AF-EMDR-Informed Therapy?
A lot of the people who seek out EMDR, both women and men alike, have a long, oftentimes complex history of relational trauma. So, with Attachment-Focused EMDR, I really strive to create a nurturing therapeutic relationship—because when people truly feel seen, heard, and attuned to, it can, on its own, facilitate a powerful corrective emotional experience.
In the preparation phase of AF-EMDR, there’s also a strong focus on tapping into and building internal resources to help clients self-regulate when they become distressed.
AF-EMDR also pairs well with other modalities, specifically Somatic Experiencing (SE). Whereas EMDR resolves trauma by targeting the worst part of a memory while using bilateral stimulation, SE gently works the edges of the story or memory while tending to bodily sensations to release stored energy.
By addressing the core issues that cause symptoms while simultaneously attending to how the body expresses that pain, clients can experience healing on a systemic, mind-body level.
What’s more, people walk out of EMDR therapy knowing that if they’re ever in distress, they possess numerous resources they can tap into at any time. That ability to self-regulate, feel safe, and stay anchored to the present can reduce symptoms and enhance clients’ personal, professional, and relational lives in incredible ways.
My Experience With EMDR As A Counselor
I first received EMDR training while in grad school at Hope International University in 2013, but it wasn’t a major part of my work at the time. Some years later, however, I noticed that as people became aware of its effectiveness, they increasingly reached out to me seeking EMDR.
Because I consider my role as a healer a spiritual calling, I feel compelled to provide the best possible care to my clients. So I decided to pursue EMDR certification and equip myself with the skills and tools needed to answer my clients’ calls for help.
During my EMDRIA certification process, I intentionally sought a provider for my own personal therapy who aligned with my values. I wanted to work with someone who was AF-EMDR-certified, a woman of color, and a Christian so that my path as a healer aligned with what was important to me as a therapist and a person.
I also felt that, to ensure my training was top-notch, it was crucial that the consultant I would learn from be certified by EMDRIA and the Parnell Institutes. Since becoming a certified EMDR counselor, I continue to immerse myself in AF-EMDR learning and truly appreciate how client-centered this approach is.
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I know that right now, you probably feel stuck in a mental loop—or that you tell yourself, “this is just how things are,” but EMDR offers you a chance to truly change and heal in incredible ways. I've consistently seen how effective and powerful EMDR is when working with clients.
So if you're tired of going in circles and avoiding the real issues—if you’re ready now to do the work and heal, reach out today. To schedule your free, 10 to 15-minute phone consultation—or to set up your first session—please visit my contact page.
Carmen Montenegro-Sis, with Revive Life Counseling, offers EMDR therapy online and in person to clients in Glendora, Pasadena, and throughout California.