EMDR Therapy: How Releasing Trauma from the Body Leads to Deep Healing

Many high-achieving BIPOC women I work with say something like this: “I’ve worked hard to get here, but I still feel stuck.” Despite their success, they struggle with anxiety, self-doubt, and trauma that lingers in the body. If you’ve tried talk therapy but still feel like something’s missing, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy may be the key to finally releasing old wounds and feeling at home in yourself.

What is EMDR Therapy and How Does It Work for Trauma?

EMDR is a structured, evidence-based therapy designed to help the brain process and integrate distressing memories. It is widely known for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), but it is also highly effective for anxiety, depression, childhood trauma, phobias, and limiting beliefs that linger long after painful experiences.

How Does EMDR Therapy Heal Trauma and Anxiety?

Traumatic memories are often stored in the body along with associated sensory experiences—sights, sounds, smells, tastes, and touch. These memories also become entangled with negative beliefs, such as “I’m not safe,” “I’m unworthy,” or “It’s my fault.”

Think of a difficult memory like food that got stuck in your system—it sits there, undigested, causing discomfort. EMDR helps your brain ‘digest’ that memory, breaking it down so you can keep what’s useful and release what’s no longer needed. Instead of feeling stuck in the past, your brain reorganizes the memory in a way that feels manageable and less distressing.

This is done using bilateral stimulation, which activates both sides of the brain. This can happen through:

• Eye Movements 👀 – Following a therapist’s fingers or a moving light back and forth.

• Tapping ✋ – Gentle taps on your hands, knees, or shoulders in a left-right pattern.

• Sounds 🎧 – Listening to alternating tones or beeps.

These movements or sounds support your brain in reprocessing stuck memories, helping them lose their emotional intensity.

The 8 Phases of EMDR

EMDR follows a structured eight-phase process to safely and effectively process trauma. These steps ensure that healing is comprehensive and lasting.

Phase 1: History-Taking & Setting the Foundation

We explore your history, identifying key memories, patterns, and triggers shaping your present experience.

Phase 2: Preparing & Resourcing

Before engaging in trauma processing, we build skills to help you stay grounded. Techniques like visualization, breathwork, or bilateral stimulation create stability.

Phase 3: Identifying the Target Memory

We select the memory to focus on and explore its emotional, physical, and mental impact.

Phase 4: Desensitization (Reprocessing the Memory)

Using bilateral stimulation, your brain naturally processes the memory, reducing its emotional charge.

Phase 5: Installing a New, Positive Belief

As the memory’s grip loosens, we strengthen a new belief that aligns with your current reality.

Phase 6: Body Scan (Integrating the Healing)

We check in with your body to ensure full resolution. Any remaining tension is processed through breathwork or movement.

Phase 7: Closure (Ending Each Session Safely)

We close each session with grounding techniques, ensuring stability between sessions.

Phase 8: Reevaluation (Tracking Progress Over Time)

We assess how you’re feeling, addressing any remaining material as needed.

Why Somatic EMDR?

Traditional EMDR is incredibly effective, but for those with complex trauma, dissociation, or a history of emotional neglect, it can sometimes feel overwhelming or incomplete. Somatic EMDR builds on the powerful framework of EMDR while incorporating somatic (body-based) awareness and nervous system regulation to ensure a deeper, more sustainable healing process.

Where standard EMDR focuses on memory reprocessing through eye movements or tapping, Somatic EMDR goes further by tuning into how trauma is stored in the body—helping clients process memories not just cognitively, but physically. This is essential for those who have spent years intellectualizing their pain without truly feeling safe in their bodies.

How Somatic EMDR Differs from Standard EMDR

Traditional EMDR

• Primarily focuses on cognitive processing of traumatic memories.

• Uses bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, or sounds) to facilitate memory processing.

• Effective but can sometimes feel overwhelming for those with deep-rooted trauma.

• Addresses both past distress and present challenges but primarily focuses on cognitive and emotional processing.

Somatic EMDR

• Integrates body awareness to track and release stored trauma responses.

• Uses bilateral stimulation and somatic techniques like grounding, breathwork, and movement to deepen regulation.

• Offers a more attuned, nervous-system-sensitive approach, reducing overwhelm.

• Integrates body awareness to track and release stored trauma responses, emphasizing present-moment regulation alongside memory processing

By integrating somatic awareness, we ensure that EMDR is not just rewiring thoughts, but also releasing old patterns of tension, bracing, and survival responses stored in the body. This helps clients feel truly free—not just intellectually, but physically and emotionally.

Who Benefits Most from Somatic EMDR?

Many of my clients are high-achieving BIPOC women and femmes who, despite outward success, still feel emotionally burdened. They have done the intellectual work of therapy, but their nervous system remains stuck in old patterns of over-functioning, self-doubt, or hypervigilance. Somatic EMDR helps them break these cycles by:

• Restoring a sense of safety in their body instead of just understanding trauma cognitively.

• Helping them regulate their nervous system so they aren’t constantly in fight-or-flight mode.

• Allowing emotions to move through rather than getting trapped, leading to greater ease and presence.

Choosing the Right EMDR Practitioner

For complex trauma, selecting a skilled practitioner is essential. When considering EMDR therapy some good questions to ask the therapist are:

• How long have they been practicing EMDR?

• Do they have experience with childhood trauma or complex PTSD?

• Have they pursued additional somatic or nervous system training beyond standard EMDR?

As an EMDR-certified therapist based in NYC with advanced training in Somatic Experiencing, I integrate both approaches to create a safe, effective healing process tailored to your needs.

If you’re curious about how Somatic EMDR can help you move beyond old patterns and feel truly at home in yourself, I invite you to explore my weekend therapy intensives for focused, accelerated healing. Reach out today to learn more about how we can work together.