If you have already talked about what happened and it still has the same grip on you, that is not a failure of effort on your part. Some memories are held in a way that ordinary conversation does not quite reach. EMDR was developed for exactly that problem.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. In practice a session is calmer than the name suggests. You bring a specific memory to mind while your therapist guides you through short sets of side-to-side eye movements, taps, or tones. After each set you pause and notice what shifted. Over a course of sessions the memory tends to lose its charge. You still remember what happened. It stops running the room.

Challenges Conquered Counseling offers EMDR in Jacksonville for adults and teens. Some clients are working through a single incident such as a car accident, an assault, or a medical emergency. Others are carrying years of accumulated experience, including childhood abuse or neglect. Some people come to us specifically for EMDR, and others begin with talk therapy and add it later once trust is established.

Nothing starts with the memory itself. The first sessions go into your history and into building your ability to steady yourself, so that when you do approach difficult material you can come back down afterward. Your therapist explains each phase before you enter it, and you set the pace. Reprocessing usually takes several sessions rather than one, and feeling tired afterward is normal.

EMDR is not only for what most people picture as trauma. It is also used for panic, phobias, grief, and the particular memories that keep long-running anxiety alive.

We see Jacksonville clients at 10163 Fortune Pkwy G40 on the Southside near Butler Boulevard, convenient to Baymeadows, Mandarin, Arlington, and the Beaches. EMDR can also be done by telehealth anywhere in Florida using on-screen bilateral stimulation, which many clients find works well for them.

We accept insurance and will check your benefits before your first appointment.

To ask whether EMDR is a good fit for you, call (954) 600-9403 or request an appointment online.