Healing Through EMDR Therapy: What You Need to Know
If you’ve experienced trauma or emotional pain that continues to affect your daily life, you’re not alone and healing is possible. At By Your Side Counseling Services, LLC in Frederick, MD, we offer EMDR therapy as a powerful, evidence-based approach to help you move forward.
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What Is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s a structured, effective therapy designed to help people process and heal from traumatic or distressing life experiences. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR allows you to heal without needing to share every detail of your past out loud. Instead, it focuses on how the brain stores and reacts to those memories and gently helps shift them.
Developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, EMDR is now recognized worldwide as a gold-standard treatment for trauma, PTSD, and many other emotional challenges.
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How Does EMDR Work?
When we experience trauma, our brains don’t always process those memories correctly. They can get “stuck,” leading to triggers, anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms. EMDR helps the brain reprocess these memories by using bilateral stimulation, usually in the form of eye movements, tapping, or tones.
While focusing on a painful memory, the bilateral stimulation activates both sides of the brain, helping reduce the emotional intensity and allowing you to build new, healthier associations.
Over time, this process allows distressing experiences to lose their grip and become integrated into your story in a more adaptive, less painful way.
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What Issues Can EMDR Help With?
EMDR is a versatile therapy that supports healing across many areas, including:
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
• Anxiety and panic attacks
• Depression
• Childhood abuse or neglect
• Grief and complicated loss
• Phobias
• Performance or test anxiety
• Birth trauma or medical trauma
• Disturbing life events that feel “stuck”
Whether you’ve experienced a single traumatic event or long-term emotional challenges, EMDR may help you find lasting relief.
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What to Expect in EMDR Therapy
At By Your Side Counseling Services, our trained EMDR therapist guides you through a supportive 8-phase process at your own pace that includes:
1. History-taking & treatment planning
2. Preparation – building trust and learning calming skills
3. Assessment – identifying target memories and related beliefs
4. Desensitization – processing the memory with reduced emotional charge
5. Installation – strengthening positive beliefs
6. Body scan – ensuring resolution at a physical level
7. Closure
8. Re-evaluation – tracking progress over time
You remain in control throughout the process, and we move at a pace that feels safe and manageable for you.
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Is EMDR Right for You?
EMDR therapy can be especially helpful if:
• You feel stuck in the past, even after trying talk therapy
• Talking about trauma feels overwhelming
• You want relief without re-living painful events in detail
• You’re open to trying a brain-body approach to healing
At By Your Side Counseling Services, our EMDR-trained therapist, Brittany Tackett, LCPC, NCC, is here to walk by your side, no matter where you are in your healing journey.
Ready to Learn More?
If you’re curious about EMDR therapy or wondering if it’s right for you, we’d love to talk.
📍 In-person sessions in Frederick, MD
🌐 https://www.byyoursidecounselingservices.com
📧 contact@byyoursidecounselingservices.com
💡 We are out-of-network providers and can offer a superbill for reimbursement.
You don’t have to carry the weight alone. Let EMDR therapy help you find peace, clarity, and strength.