Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR: Healing Beyond Talk
At Anne Giles Counseling, we work with individuals who feel caught in patterns they can’t seem to break—whether it’s anxiety, trauma, or persistent self-doubt. You may intellectually understand why you feel the way you do, yet still find your body reacting as if the past is happening right now. That’s because trauma and stress responses aren’t just stored in your thoughts—they live in your nervous system.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) offers a way to heal beyond traditional talk therapy. Rather than focusing solely on analyzing or retelling painful experiences, EMDR helps your brain reprocess them in a way that restores a sense of calm and control. Through guided bilateral stimulation—such as eye movements or tapping—you’re able to safely access and integrate memories that once felt overwhelming.
Sound familiar? You might notice that no matter how much insight you gain, certain triggers still activate the same emotions or physical sensations. EMDR helps bridge that gap—working directly with the parts of your brain and body that words can’t always reach.
At Anne Giles Counseling, EMDR is used to help you gently untangle these emotional knots, reduce distress, and reclaim your ability to feel grounded, present, and whole. It’s not about erasing your past—it’s about freeing you from its grip so you can live fully in the present.
What Is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based therapy that helps the brain and body heal from distressing or traumatic experiences. Using gentle bilateral stimulation—such as eye movements or tapping—EMDR allows the brain to reprocess stuck memories so they no longer trigger intense emotional or physical reactions.
When trauma or chronic stress isn’t fully processed, it can resurface as anxiety, hypervigilance, or negative self-beliefs. EMDR helps release these responses, creating space for calm and clarity.
This approach is especially effective for trauma, PTSD, anxiety, panic attacks, grief, perfectionism, and low self-esteem. Over time, painful experiences lose their intensity, and you can move forward with greater confidence, peace, and connection to yourself.
EMDR doesn’t erase the past—it helps free you from it, so you can live fully in the present.
How Does EMDR Work?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) works by helping the brain and body naturally reprocess distressing experiences so they no longer trigger overwhelming emotions or physical reactions. When trauma or chronic stress occurs, the brain sometimes stores those memories in a “stuck” state—frozen in the nervous system as if the danger is still happening. EMDR uses gentle bilateral stimulation, such as eye movements or tapping, to activate both sides of the brain, allowing these memories to be safely integrated and healed.
In an EMDR session, you’ll be guided to recall aspects of a memory while staying grounded in the present. Over time, the emotional intensity fades, and what once felt unbearable becomes neutral. This process helps shift beliefs like “I’m powerless” or “I’m not safe” into more balanced truths like “I survived” or “I’m in control now.”
EMDR in Comparison With Other Treatment Approaches
While traditional talk therapies like Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focus on reframing thoughts, EMDR targets how the body and brain store those experiences. Rather than simply talking about a problem, EMDR helps release it on a deeper, neurological level—addressing both emotional and physical responses.
Unlike exposure therapy, which emphasizes repeated confrontation with a fear, EMDR helps your brain naturally desensitize and reprocess memories without retraumatization. It’s also more experiential than insight-based therapies, engaging the body’s innate capacity to heal.
At Anne Giles Counseling, EMDR is integrated with Internal Family Systems (IFS) and somatic work to provide a holistic path to healing. This approach honors both your mind and body, helping you move beyond survival patterns and into a state of grounded calm, self-trust, and emotional freedom.
EMDR Is One of the Core Approaches We Use at Anne Giles Counseling
At Anne Giles Counseling, we believe healing happens when insight meets integration. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) helps you move beyond overthinking and emotional overwhelm by addressing how painful experiences are stored in the nervous system.
Rather than endlessly analyzing the past, EMDR allows the brain to safely reprocess distressing memories so they no longer trigger intense reactions. This process helps reduce anxiety, release old patterns, and restore a sense of calm and control.
It’s not about fixing what’s “wrong” with you—it’s about freeing you from what’s been holding you back, so you can move through life with greater clarity, confidence, and ease.
Reprocess, Release, and Reclaim Calm
At Anne Giles Counseling, we specialize in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy to help you move beyond anxiety, trauma, and the stress responses that keep you stuck. EMDR works with the brain’s natural healing process to release the emotional charge of painful memories and restore a sense of balance.
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation or contact us to learn more about how EMDR can help you feel grounded, confident, and at peace again.
EMDR Therapy Boulder, CO
1650 38th Street, Suite 100, Boulder, CO 80301