EMDR stands for eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. It uses bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, to help the brain process painful experiences so they can be stored differently- allowing them to feel less emotionally intense and create space for you to feel and engage differently in the present.

Experiential Therapy goes beyond talking about an experience and instead helps us work with what is happening throughout your system in real time. Through approaches such as parts work, EMDR, and imaginatively revisiting a recent experience, we use mindfulness to observe our deeper emotions, beliefs, sensations, urges, and patterns that emerge. From there, we can explore and offer what your system may need- whether that's allowing an emotion to be felt and processed, understanding a protective response, or creating space for a belief to shift. Throughout the process, we continue to slow down and mindfully notice what's happening, what's shifting, and for new experiences to be felt and integrated.

Parts work is a way of understanding the inner workings of our mind and how certain beliefs, emotional responses, and coping mechanisms developed and came to make sense. A belief, expectation, or way of responding may have once made sense, and through parts work, we become curious about how it made sense. In other words, what we perceived—or what really was true—at one point in our lives might not be the case now, yet our minds and bodies can continue responding in ways that once made sense. Inner child work can be a part of this process when the feelings, beliefs, or responses we're exploring seem connected to experiences or needs from earlier in life. Parts and inner child work allow us to gently revisit present-day moments when these old responses become activated and become curious about what you learned, what felt true, and what may have been needed. From there, we can create space for new experiences to be felt, ones that allow you to discover what is true now and, sometimes, what may have been true all along. Throughout this process, we may also draw from mindfulness and experiential therapy, and incorporate EMDR when it feels supportive to the work.