Embodied EMDR Therapy
Embodied EMDR describes how I practice EMDR — integrating body-based awareness and movement throughout the full arc of the process, informed by my training in both EMDR and Dance/Movement Therapy.
It’s grounded in a simple but profound belief: that healing doesn’t just happen in the mind. It happens in the body too.
Most people I work with already know, on some level, that they are safe, worthy, or enough. The challenge is that they can’t feel it. Embodied EMDR is designed to bridge that gap — supporting you to integrate what you know cognitively into something you can actually feel, and live from, in your body.
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured, evidence-based therapy originally developed to treat trauma. It works by helping the brain reprocess distressing memories and experiences — not by erasing them, but by reducing the hold they have on your daily life.
What makes EMDR different from traditional talk therapy is that it works with the body’s natural capacity for healing. Using bilateral stimulation — side-to-side eye movements, tapping, or audio tones — EMDR helps the brain do what it couldn’t do at the time of the original experience: fully process and move through it.
EMDR is not hypnosis. You remain present and in control throughout. The goal isn’t to forget what happened — it’s to reach a place where a difficult memory feels more like a story from your past than something that pulls you under in the present.
We store experiences not just as thoughts, but as images, sensations, sounds, and feelings. Many people I work with don’t remember all the details of what happened — the memory may live in their body as a physical sensation or a recurring emotional reaction. EMDR doesn’t require you to have the full story. It meets you where you are.
Why the Body Matters
Trauma is not only a mental experience — it’s a physical one. When something overwhelming happens, the body responds: it braces, freezes, collapses, or mobilizes for survival. And when the experience doesn’t fully resolve, the body keeps holding it. Long after the event has passed, the nervous system can remain in a state of readiness — waiting for a threat that is no longer there.
This is why approaches that work only with thoughts and words have limits for many people. Talking about an experience can build understanding, but understanding alone doesn’t always create the shift people are looking for. When the body is included in the healing process — when we pay attention to sensation, movement impulse, and physical response alongside the cognitive work — something deeper becomes possible.
In Embodied EMDR, the body is not an afterthought. It is an active participant in the work — one of your most reliable and underutilized resources. Unlike any external tool, your body is with you everywhere you go. Part of this work is helping you learn to access it, trust it, and draw on it long after our sessions end.
What is Dance/Movement Therapy?
Dance/Movement Therapy (DMT) is defined by the American Dance Therapy Association (ADTA) as “the psychotherapeutic use of dance, movement, body awareness, and embodied communication to foster healing and well-being for all individuals, families, and communities. ” It is a clinically recognized mental health discipline rooted in the understanding that the body and mind are inseparable — that how we move, hold ourselves, and respond physically is directly connected to how we feel and heal.
In practice, this doesn’t mean sessions involve dancing or choreography. It means the body is always present in our work together. It might look like noticing how your body responds when you talk about something difficult, using gentle movement to build a sense of calm and safety, or following a physical impulse that surfaces during processing to help complete what was once interrupted.
My training as a Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist (BC-DMT) — the highest credential in the field — shapes how I listen, how I respond, and how I understand what your body is communicating, even when words fall short.
To learn more about Dance/Movement Therapy, visit the ADTA’s website
Why Movement Matters
Standard EMDR already attends to the body — sensation is a core part of the protocol. What Embodied EMDR adds is a more intentional, systematic use of movement and body-based awareness woven throughout the entire process, not just at specific moments.
One of the most powerful aspects of this work is the opportunity to finish what the body started. When something overwhelming happens, the body instinctively mobilizes — an urge to run, push away, reach out, or protect yourself. Often in the moment of trauma, that impulse gets interrupted. There wasn't time, or it wasn't safe, or the body had to shut down instead. That unfinished action can stay lodged in the nervous system long after the event has passed — showing up as tension, restlessness, numbness, or a feeling of being perpetually braced for something.
In Embodied EMDR, we pay attention to those impulses as they surface during processing. Rather than pushing past them, we follow them — gently, at your pace — and support the body to complete what was once interrupted. This isn't about reliving the past. It's about giving your nervous system the resolution it's been waiting for.
In practice, this might look like:
Noticing and following physical impulses that arise during reprocessing — the urge to push away, reach out, or complete a protective action that was once interrupted
Using movement to access and reinforce internal resources, so they are available to you not just in session but in everyday life
Paying close attention to how your nervous system is responding in real time — and adjusting the pace and approach accordingly
Supporting you to feel new beliefs in your body, not just understand them in your mind
The result is a process in which healing feels more complete — not just a shift in perspective, but a shift you can actually sense and inhabit.
Who is this for
Embodied EMDR tends to be a particularly good fit for people who:
Have been through talk therapy before and feel like something is still stuck or unresolved
Find themselves understanding their patterns intellectually but struggling to actually feel or change them
Experience trauma responses in the body — tension, numbness, a racing heart, difficulty settling — that words alone haven’t reached
Have complex or developmental trauma histories that feel layered or hard to locate in a single memory
Find it difficult to stay present or regulated during traditional trauma processing
Are curious about the connection between body and mind, and open to a more whole-person approach to healing
You don’t need any background in movement or body-based practices. You just need a willingness to slow down, get curious, and include your whole self in the process.
Whether you’re a potential client exploring your options or a therapist interested in learning more about this approach, I’d love to connect.