EMDR
With Joann Chevaillier, LPC-Associate, SEP
You’ve done the work. You understand what happened. You’ve talked about it, processed it, made sense of it; and still, something in you responds like it’s still happening. A sound, a smell, a tone of voice, and your whole body is back there.
That’s not a failure of insight. That’s the body’s way of protecting you from something it never got to finish. And EMDR was designed specifically to help it finish.
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based therapy. It helps the brain process experiences that got stuck, memories that didn’t get filed away properly because they were too overwhelming in the moment.
Using bilateral stimulation gentle side-to-side eye movements, tapping, or sound. EMDR engages both hemispheres of the brain while you briefly revisit a difficult memory. This allows the nervous system to process what it couldn’t before, so the memory loses its charge. It stops running the show.
You don’t have to retell the story in detail. You don’t have to relive it. The work happens at a level beneath the words, where the body keeps its own kind of time.
This Might Be For You If
You’ve tried talk therapy and still feel caught in the same patterns
Certain memories or triggers feel emotionally charged no matter how much you understand them
Anxiety or fear responses feel outsized, like your body is still responding to something long past
You’ve experienced trauma and want a body-based approach to moving through it
Something happened that you haven’t been able to fully release
What Sessions Are Like
EMDR sessions are collaborative and carefully paced. We’ll spend time building your internal resources before moving into processing. So, you feel grounded and steady throughout. There’s no rushing, and you’re always in the driver’s seat.
Many women describe a sense of lightness after EMDR, like something they’d been bracing against has finally been allowed to settle. The memory is still there. It just no longer has the same grip on you.
About Joann
I’m Joann, and I use EMDR as one thread in a broader body-based and relational approach to healing.
I’ve experienced these approaches in my own life, not just studied them. I know how it feels to have your nervous system hold something your mind has already “figured out.” That understanding shapes how I work.
If you’re ready to let something go, I’d love to talk.