EMDR therapy
Your past shaped you, but it does not have to control you.
EMDR therapy offers a powerful path forward when you're struggling with anxiety, past trauma, or patterns that feel impossible to break. If you've been carrying the weight of difficult experiences that continue to affect your present life, you're not alone, and there's a way through.
EMDR therapy at Wilde Counseling combines evidence-based healing with the compassionate, relational care you deserve. Our team specializes in helping women and adults throughout Atlanta find freedom from trauma, anxiety, and relational wounds through personalized Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.
What Is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured therapeutic approach that helps your brain process and integrate difficult experiences that have become "stuck." Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR works directly with your brain's natural healing processes through bilateral stimulation, typically guided eye movements, sounds, or tactile sensations.
When you experience something traumatic or overwhelming, your brain's normal information processing can become disrupted. These unprocessed memories remain locked in your nervous system with their original intensity, which is why certain situations can trigger overwhelming emotions long after the event has passed. EMDR helps your brain complete this processing, allowing painful memories to lose their emotional charge and become part of your past rather than something that continues to control your present.
How EMDR Can Help
We integrate EMDR therapy into treatment for a variety of concerns that many of our Atlanta clients face:
Anxiety and Overwhelm: When anxiety has roots in past experiences that taught you the world isn't safe or predictable, EMDR can address these underlying experiences, helping you feel more grounded in daily life.
Complex Trauma: Not all trauma comes from a single event. EMDR is particularly effective for addressing the cumulative impact of ongoing difficult experiences, whether from childhood environments, relational patterns, or developmental wounds.
Relational Wounds: If you find yourself stuck in unhealthy relationship patterns, struggling with trust, or feeling unworthy of love, EMDR can help reprocess the experiences that created these beliefs and open pathways to healthier connections.
Dissociation: When experiences are too overwhelming, the mind sometimes disconnects as protection. EMDR, integrated with approaches like Somatic Experiencing and Polyvagal-informed therapy, can help you process underlying trauma while building greater capacity for presence.
Addiction: EMDR addresses the underlying experiences and emotions driving addictive patterns, creating space for healthier coping strategies to develop.
Identity and Self-Worth: Many women struggle with fractured identity or feelings of not being enough. EMDR helps reprocess the moments that taught you to hide parts of yourself or doubt your inherent worth.
Women's Mental Health: The unique pressures women face deserve therapeutic approaches that understand this context. EMDR can help process experiences and internalized beliefs that specifically impact women's mental health.
Faith and Spirituality: For those navigating religious trauma, spiritual struggles, or conflicts between faith and identity, EMDR offers a path toward integration and healing.
What to Expect in EMDR Therapy at Wilde Counseling
Your Free Consultation
Every journey with us begins with a free 20-minute consultation call. We prioritize relationship over business, so this conversation allows us to understand what you're looking for, answer your questions about EMDR, and determine if we're the right fit for your needs. No pressure, just an opportunity to connect.
Building Safety First
We never rush into trauma processing. The initial phase of therapy focuses on establishing safety, building our therapeutic relationship, and ensuring you have adequate coping skills before beginning EMDR reprocessing. We'll explore your history, identify specific targets for treatment, and prepare you for what to expect. Your stability and sense of safety always come first.
The Reprocessing Journey
Once we've built a solid foundation, we begin the reprocessing work. During sessions, you'll focus on specific memories or beliefs while engaging in bilateral stimulation. Many clients notice memories becoming less vivid, emotions shifting, and new insights emerging naturally. Some feel lighter afterward, while others may experience temporary processing between sessions as the brain continues its integration work.
Integrated Approach
We don't view EMDR as a standalone technique. Our team integrates EMDR with other therapeutic modalities we offer, including Internal Family Systems (IFS), Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal Theory, Attachment-Focused Therapy, and AEDP. This comprehensive approach ensures we're addressing your needs from multiple angles, working with the complexity of your whole experience.
Scheduling and Continuity
For most clients beginning therapy, we recommend weekly or biweekly sessions scheduled at least a month in advance. This rhythm supports continuity of care and allows the work to build meaningfully. You can always change or reschedule as needed, and we're not a homework-heavy practice, though we may suggest exercises when genuinely supportive of your process.
Why Choose EMDR Therapy at Wilde Counseling?
Relationship Centered Care
You're not a number in our calendar. We're committed to creating a therapeutic space where you feel genuinely seen, valued, and safe to explore difficult territory. This relational foundation is essential for effective trauma work.
Evidence Based Excellence
Our team pursues ongoing consultation, supervision, and training to ensure we provide ethical, evidence-based care. We're connected to the larger Atlanta therapist community and stay current with the latest research and best practices in trauma treatment.
Personalized to You
There's no one-size-fits-all approach here. Your history, struggles, strengths, and goals are uniquely yours, and the way we work with EMDR will be tailored specifically to you. For some clients, EMDR becomes the primary focus. For others, it's one component of a broader healing journey. We trust your wisdom about what feels right.
Flexible Service Options
We offer both in-person sessions at our Atlanta location and online therapy, ensuring treatment fits into your life in a way that works for you.
Holistic Support
While we don't offer crisis services, we can connect you with appropriate support if needed. Our focus is on addressing the roots of your struggles and building sustainable wellness over time, not just managing symptoms.
Who We Serve
We work with adults, young adults, couples, and members of the LGBTQ community throughout the Atlanta area. Many of our clients are women in their twenties and thirties navigating the intersection of personal growth, relationship challenges, and the unique pressures that shape women's lives today.
Begin Your Healing Journey
If you're ready to explore whether EMDR therapy might be right for you, we invite you to take the first step. Your healing journey doesn't have to follow anyone else's timeline or look a certain way. What matters is that you're moving toward the life you want—one where past pain no longer dictates your present.
EMDR therapy offers a path to reprocess the experiences holding you back, creating space for new patterns, beliefs, and possibilities to emerge. It's not about erasing your history. It's about changing your relationship to those experiences so they no longer hold power over your present.
Ready to get started? Contact Wilde Counseling today to schedule your free 20-minute consultation. Visit www.wildecounseling.com to learn more about our services and take the first step toward healing.
Frequently Asked Questions About EMDR Therapy
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The timeline for EMDR therapy varies for each person based on your unique history and goals. Some clients notice shifts after just a few reprocessing sessions, while others benefit from several months of work. Complex trauma typically requires more time than single-incident experiences. During your free consultation, we can discuss what a realistic timeline might look like for your specific situation. We focus on sustainable healing rather than rushing the process.
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Not at all. While EMDR was originally developed for trauma treatment, it's effective for a wide range of concerns including anxiety, relational difficulties, low self-worth, and patterns that feel stuck. You don't need to have experienced a dramatic traumatic event to benefit from EMDR therapy. Many of our clients use EMDR to address everyday struggles that have roots in past experiences.
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EMDR sessions at Wilde Counseling typically last the standard therapy hour. After we've completed the preparation phase, reprocessing sessions involve identifying a target memory or belief, rating your current distress level, and then engaging in bilateral stimulation while briefly focusing on that target. You'll notice what comes up naturally without needing to describe everything in detail. We check in regularly throughout the session and close with grounding techniques to ensure you feel stable before leaving.
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One of the benefits of EMDR therapy is that you don't need to recount traumatic experiences in extensive detail. You'll identify the memory or belief we're targeting, but the bilateral stimulation allows your brain to process without requiring you to verbally relive every aspect. Some clients share more details naturally, while others process more internally. Both approaches work well with EMDR.
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We offer EMDR therapy both online and in person at our Atlanta location. Online EMDR has proven highly effective, and we use techniques adapted for virtual sessions that maintain the same therapeutic benefits. Many clients appreciate the convenience of attending sessions from home, while others prefer the in-person experience. The choice is yours based on what feels most comfortable.
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Your safety and comfort are our top priorities. We establish grounding techniques and coping strategies before beginning any reprocessing work. During sessions, you remain in control and can signal if you need to pause or slow down. We regularly check in about your experience and adjust our pace accordingly. EMDR is designed to be tolerable, and we never push you beyond what feels manageable.
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Yes. At Wilde Counseling, we integrate EMDR with other therapeutic approaches including Internal Family Systems, Somatic Experiencing, Polyvagal Theory, Attachment-Focused Therapy, and AEDP. This integration allows us to work with all aspects of your experience and tailor treatment to your specific needs. Some sessions might focus entirely on EMDR, while others blend different modalities based on what's most helpful for you.
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EMDR therapy tends to be particularly helpful if you're experiencing intrusive memories, anxiety that seems disproportionate to current situations, negative beliefs about yourself that feel stuck despite knowing they're not true, or patterns in relationships that you can't seem to break. The best way to determine if EMDR is right for you is to schedule a free consultation where we can discuss your specific concerns and goals.
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Some clients notice continued processing between sessions as their brain integrates the work we've done. You might experience new insights, shifts in how you feel about certain memories, or even vivid dreams. Others don't notice much between sessions, and that's completely normal too. We're not a homework-heavy practice, though we may suggest gentle practices if they feel supportive. We'll always check in at the start of each session about your experience since we last met.
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We're happy to discuss specific information about sessions and scheduling during your free 20-minute consultation call. This allows us to understand your needs and provide accurate information tailored to your situation. You can reach out through our website to schedule your consultation and learn more about beginning EMDR therapy with us.