By Donna Groves, MA, LMFT — EMDR and CBT therapist specializing in trauma, CPTSD, and addiction recovery
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful, research-supported therapy designed to help people recover from trauma, distressing life events, and emotional wounds that continue to affect their daily lives. For many individuals—especially those who haven’t found relief through traditional talk therapy—EMDR offers a new and effective path to healing.
At Mindful Heart Therapy, Donna Groves, MA, LMFT, integrates EMDR into trauma-focused treatment to help clients gently process unresolved pain and build emotional resilience.
Key points
- EMDR has been shown to be effective in addressing traumatic experiences.
- EMDR is often less stressful than other forms of therapy.
- In some cases, you can experience tangible benefits relatively quickly.
- A single traumatic event can usually be processed in 3-6 sessions. More complex trauma typically requires 8-12 sessions.
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What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured therapeutic approach that helps you reprocess traumatic or emotionally charged memories in a way that reduces their emotional intensity. Using bilateral stimulation—such as guided eye movements, sounds, or tapping—EMDR activates the brain’s natural healing abilities and supports new, healthier associations with painful events.
Rather than talking at length about what happened, EMDR focuses on how the memory is stored in the nervous system. This allows clients to release emotional pain without having to relive the experience in detail.
What can EMDR help with?
EMDR has been shown to be effective for a wide range of concerns, particularly those rooted in trauma, including:
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex trauma (CPTSD)
- Anxiety, panic attacks, and phobias
- Depression and low self-worth
- Grief and loss
- Dissociation or emotional numbness
- Eating disorders and body image issues
- Addictions and compulsive behaviors
- Relationship challenges rooted in early attachment wounds
Many clients come to EMDR after years of struggling with patterns they don’t fully understand—reactivity, shame, emotional shutdown, or feeling stuck in survival mode. EMDR helps address the why beneath the symptoms.
What to expect in a session
An EMDR session begins with a thorough intake to understand your history, current struggles, and therapy goals. Before any trauma work begins, you’ll learn grounding and resourcing tools to help you feel safe and emotionally prepared.
Once you’re ready to begin reprocessing, you’ll identify a memory that feels distressing and work with your therapist to explore the images, thoughts, emotions, and body sensations connected to it. While you focus on the memory, Donna will guide you through sets of eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation. Between each set, you’ll be asked to notice what thoughts or feelings arise, allowing the memory to shift, evolve, and lose its emotional charge.
The process doesn’t erase the memory—it helps you reframe it in a way that no longer overwhelms you.
Why EMDR works
Unprocessed trauma can stay “stuck” in the nervous system, reactivated by everyday triggers like a sound, a smell, or a certain tone of voice. EMDR helps the brain complete its natural healing process, so that when the memory surfaces again, it feels more like something that happened to you—not something you are still living in.
Clients often report that after EMDR, they feel lighter, more emotionally regulated, and less reactive. The meaning of the experience changes, and with it, so does the emotional grip it once held.
The benefits of EMDR
- You don’t have to go into detailed retellings of traumatic experiences
- EMDR often leads to faster relief than traditional talk therapy
- It helps resolve root issues instead of just managing surface symptoms
- No journaling or homework required between sessions
- Backed by decades of research and clinical trials
At Mindful Heart Therapy, EMDR is offered as part of a broader trauma-informed approach that may also include Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatic work, and polyvagal-based techniques to help you regulate and heal at your own pace.
Ready to explore EMDR therapy?
If you’ve tried other approaches and still feel stuck, EMDR might be the next step you need. Donna Groves, MA, LMFT, brings warmth, safety, and deep expertise to the EMDR process. Her goal is to help you reconnect with yourself, move past the pain, and feel truly empowered in your life again.
Call Donna at (424) 835-1727 or fill out the contact form and click send.
By Donna Groves, MA, LMFT
She specializes in trauma, CPTSD, addiction, and anxiety, integrating evidence-based and depth-oriented therapies to support lasting emotional and relational change.
Related information
Mavranezouli, I., Megnin-Viggars, O., Daly, C., Dias, S., Welton, N.J., Stockton, S., Bhutani, G., Grey, N., Leach, J., Greenberg, N., Katona, C., El-Leithy, S.M., & Pilling, S. (2020). Psychological treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder in adults: a network meta-analysis. Psychological Medicine, 50, 542 – 555.
Perlini, C., Donisi, V., Rossetti, M.G., Moltrasio, C., Bellani, M., & Brambilla, P. (2020). The potential role of EMDR on trauma in affective disorders: A narrative review. Journal of affective disorders, 269, 1-11.
Perri, R.L., Castelli, P., La Rosa, C., Zucchi, T., & Onofri, A. (2021). COVID-19, Isolation, Quarantine: On the Efficacy of Internet-Based Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Ongoing Trauma. Brain Sciences, 11.
Website of The EMDR International Association (EMDRIA).