Email: Info@thrivebeyondtraumacounseling.com
Call: (248) 392- 3733
Counselling
Counselling
EMDR and Somatic Healing
Trauma is not just a story from your past.
It is a felt experience — Stored in your body, your nervous system, your emotions, and the parts of you that learned to survive.
Even when you know you are safe, your body may still respond as if the danger is happening now. This is why trauma can feel confusing, overwhelming, or “stuck.”
EMDR and somatic trauma healing help your mind and body release what has been held for far too long — Gently, safely, and without re-traumatization.
*Trauma is stored in the body. EMDR and somatic healing help release it.*
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) is an evidence-based trauma therapy that uses bilateral stimulation — Tapping, eye movements, or sounds — to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories safely and effectively.
EMDR helps your system:
- Release trauma without reliving it
- Reduce emotional intensity of painful memories
- Transform negative core beliefs
- Calm fight/flight/freeze reactions
- Resolve triggers
- Heal attachment wounds
- Integrate overwhelming experiences
*The goal of EMDR is integration — Not reliving, not retraumatization, not forgetting.*
Why EMDR & Somatic Healing Work
When something overwhelms your system, your brain cannot fully process the experience. It becomes “stuck” — not as memory, but as:
- Body sensations
- Emotional reactions
- Beliefs about yourself
- Relational patterns
- Survival responses
These unresolved imprints can keep the nervous system locked in hyperarousal (fight/flight) or shutdown (freeze/collapse).
That’s why insight alone often isn’t enough. You may understand what happened — And still feel hijacked by it.
*If your body still reacts even when your mind “knows better,” it’s not weakness — It’s unresolved nervous-system imprinting.*
EMDR and somatic healing work because they address trauma at the places it lives:
- In the body
- In the nervous system
- In the limbic system
- In emotional memory
- In protective parts of self
*Healing must go beyond talking — It must reach the body and the deeper emotional mind.*
EMDR vs Somatic Healing
Most people are never clearly told how these two approaches differ — And why Thrive integrates them.
What EMDR Helps With (Mind + Memory Integration)
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing) is an evidence-based trauma therapy that uses bilateral stimulation — Tapping, eye movements, or sounds — To help the brain reprocess traumatic material safely and effectively.
EMDR helps your system:
Reduce the emotional charge of painful memories
Resolve triggers and intrusive reactions
Shift negative beliefs (ex: “I’m unsafe,” “I’m not enough”)
Calm fight/flight/freeze responses
Integrate overwhelming experiences
Heal attachment-related trauma patterns
*EMDR helps your brain re-file what happened so it stops feeling like it’s happening now.*
What Somatic Healing Helps With
(Body + Nervous System Regulation)
Somatic therapy focuses on what trauma leaves behind in the body — Tension, collapse, numbness, panic, or disconnection.
Somatic healing helps you:
Track nervous-system signals in real time
Reduce chronic tension and bodily bracing
Work with shutdown, numbness, or dissociation gently
Restore a felt sense of safety and presence
Release stored survival energy (without emotional flooding)
Expand your window of tolerance over time
*Somatic healing helps your body learn safety again — Not as an idea, but as an embodied experience.*
Why We Combine EMDR With Somatic Healing
Trauma often lives in:
- Tightness in the chest
- A pit in the stomach
- Chronic tension
- Numbness
- Shutdown
- A racing heart
- Difficulty breathing
- Emotional overwhelm
Somatic healing teaches you to:
- Recognize your nervous-system cues
- Build internal safety
- Expand window of tolerance
- Release stored survival energy
- Increase grounding and presence
- Reconnect with your body gently
- Develop emotional capacity
- Access deeper layers of healing
Together, somatic work and EMDR offer a whole-person pathway to resolution.
*EMDR integrates the memory. Somatic work integrates the body. Healing requires both.*
Trauma-Safe Care
Not all EMDR or “somatic work” is trauma-safe. At Thrive, we prioritize nervous-system pacing and client control.
In sessions, you can:
Pause at any time
Slow down or stop the process
Choose what you share and what you don’t
Stay oriented to the present while processing the past
We monitor for:
dissociation
emotional flooding
shutdown responses
panic activation
And we return to grounding before continuing.
*You remain in control. Regulation comes before processing — Always.*
When EMDR Is Recommended
EMDR is especially effective for:
- PTSD & C-PTSD
- Betrayal trauma
- Childhood trauma
- Medical trauma
- Sexual trauma
- Emotional neglect
- Attachment wounds
- Panic attacks
- Anxiety
- Phobias
- Flashbacks
- Dissociation
- Shame
- Addiction-related trauma
- Grief
If you feel “stuck,” overwhelmed, or unable to move forward even with insight, EMDR can help.
*If talk therapy hasn’t gone deep enough, EMDR may be the missing piece.*
Parts Work + Attachment Repair With EMDR
- Frightened
- Ashamed
- Alone
- Not enough
- Responsible for everything
- Unseen or unprotected
- Attunement
- Understanding
- Compassion
- Corrective emotional experiences
- Integration
- Fear of abandonment
- Fear of closeness
- Conflict cycles
- Emotional disconnection
- Difficulty trusting
*We don’t just process memories — We help the parts of you that lived them.*
What A Session Feels Like
Clients often describe EMDR + somatic work as:
- Calming
- Grounding
- Relieving
- Clarifying
- Emotionally freeing
- Unexpectedly gentle
- Deeply transformative
A typical session may include:
- Nervous-system grounding
- Somatic check-ins
- EMDR bilateral stimulation
- Restoring internal safety
- Processing emotional and body-based memories
- Integrating new beliefs and self-understanding
You remain fully present and in control throughout the process.
*You do not relive trauma — You release it.*
What Clients Often Notice
While every healing process is unique, clients often report changes like:
Fewer triggers and less emotional reactivity
Reduced panic, hypervigilance, or shutdown
Improved sleep and less nighttime rumination
Feeling more grounded in the body
Less shame and more self-compassion
Clearer boundaries and relationship stability
Relief that feels both emotional and physical
*This work doesn’t just help you “understand” — It helps you feel different inside.*
Conditions That Benefit From EMDR & Somatic Work
Clients often seek EMDR + somatic healing for:
- Trauma of any kind
- Betrayal trauma (male & female partners)
- Porn, sex, love, and relationship addiction
- Childhood wounds
- Anxiety, panic, chronic stress
- Grief or loss
- Identity wounds
- Emotion dysregulation
- High-functioning professionals who feel “broken inside”
- Trauma stored in the body
*You don’t have to stay stuck in survival mode.*
Who This Work Is For
EMDR & somatic therapy are especially helpful if you:
- Know your past impacts you but can’t change the patterns
- Feel triggered easily
- Feel anxious or overwhelmed
- Feel shut down or numb
- Have trauma stored in your body
- Have tried talk therapy without deeper relief
- Feel “stuck” in emotional loops
- Experienced betrayal, abandonment, or childhood pain
- Want a deeper, more embodied healing approach
*When your mind understands but your body still hurts — this work is for you.*
When We Slow Down or Choose a Different Starting Point
EMDR is powerful — And it works best when your system has enough stability to process safely.
We may slow down, stabilize first, or choose a different approach if:
You are currently in active crisis
Dissociation is frequent and unmanaged
Substance use is actively destabilizing
There is ongoing danger or acute instability
Your nervous system needs foundational regulation skills first
*“Not yet” doesn’t mean “not ever.” Sometimes stabilization is the treatment.*
What Starting EMDR & Somatic Healing Looks Like
We learn what your symptoms look like, how your trauma responses show up, and what your system needs to feel safe.
We build grounding, containment, and regulation tools before deeper processing.
We process at a pace your system can handle — with ongoing check-ins and nervous-system support.
We reinforce new beliefs, create internal safety, and support real-life change in relationships, identity, and daily functioning.
*We don’t rush the deepest work — We build the foundation that makes it safe and lasting.*
Related Specialties
Many clients who explore EMDR also benefit from:
Porn & Sex Addiction Recovery →
FAQ
No. EMDR helps your brain process the memory safely without overwhelm.
No. We prepare your nervous system first.
It is gentle, grounding, and paced at your comfort level.
Yes — It is one of the most effective treatments for relational trauma.
Yes, EMDR can be done virtually when clinically appropriate.
Begin Your Healing Journey
You can heal gently. You can heal safely. You can heal at your pace.