Intensives

• Weeklong Intensive: $7,500

• Structured Mini-Intensive $3,750

Ongoing Therapy

• Standard Intake: $1,750

• Individual 90-Minute Session: $375

• Daylong Intensive (three hours): $1,275

Yes, if your insurance plan reimburses for out-of-network providers. I am a fully licensed out-of-network provider in Washington, Florida, and Alaska. How it works: you pay me for the session using an HSA, credit or debit card either at the time of session for ongoing therapy or prior to the session for the Standard Intake and Weeklong/Structured Mini-Intensives. Following the session(s), I provide a receipt called a superbill that you may submit to your insurance company for reimbursement. The exact amount reimbursed depends on your plan.

I see clients either in-person in my office in Downtown Seattle or remotely from the comfort of your own home. For clients seeking in-person appointments, my office is at Sixth and Stewart Street, three blocks from the Amazon spheres and two blocks from Pacific Place mall, kitty-corner from the Westin.

EMDR is a state-of-the-art therapeutic approach that has exploded in popularity. It is a powerful technique that rapidly helps to heal emotional pain and the negative beliefs that accompany it. It is the first line therapy for trauma. Research has also shown it to be highly effective in the treatment of depression, anxiety/panic, gambling addiction, drug and alcohol addiction, and many other behavioral health issues as well.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It draws on the understanding that rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a time when memories from the day are processed. It recognizes that traumatic memories are unable to be processed effectively during REM sleep as they overwhelm the brain and are not stored in the same way. This leads the traumatized person to relive the traumatic experience. Using eye movements or some other form of what is called bilateral stimulation, an EMDR therapist uses the brain’s natural adaptive information processing (AIP) system to enable it to work through traumatic memories that have gotten “stuck.” In effect, the therapist is manually doing what the overwhelmed brain could not do at the time: processing and storing the memories. EMDR is appealing to clients because it doesn’t require recounting every detail of the trauma, rather simply bringing it to mind so it can be processed.

Let’s break down two of the primary phases: desensitization and reprocessing (the “DR” of EMDR). First, the traumatic memory is desensitized, meaning that it is no longer upsetting to remember. The emotional charge it once held is gone, freeing the person to view the memory objectively and separated from her in time and space. In the treatment of addiction, the desensitization phase lessens the potency of the relapse fantasy (urge) so that the drug or behavior loses its appeal. Next, during the reprocessing phase, the negative belief associated with the trauma is replaced with a positive belief. The “installation” of this belief occurs by using bilateral stimulation to link the traumatic memory with the positive belief. By the end of the process the person is able to remain calm when thinking of the formerly upsetting memory while holding the positive belief in mind. In the case of an addictive behavior, the image of the trigger to use or gamble, now desensitized, is reprocessed by pairing it with the positive body sensations of an addiction-free day in the future.

Let’s say a man has been feeling depressed ever since he was in a car accident four years ago in which his son was badly injured. He has avoided driving since the accident, and images from the event have bothered him every day since it happened. Thinking of the accident, he reports feeling upset at a “9/10” level, with 10/10 being the most distress possible. He has the following negative belief related to the event: “I can’t keep my family safe.” We set this accident up as the target, then use short sets of eye movements to decrease how upset he feels when thinking of the event. Sets are typically ten to fifteen seconds each with breaks between each set. After processing for 30 minutes, it is possible that he is now bothered at a “0/10” when thinking of the event. This transformation is incredible to witness! It is the brain’s adaptive information processing system at work. The trauma has been desensitized.

Now, the event is reprocessed by linking the positive belief that he can keep his family safe with the memory of the car accident. We install this link by doing short sets of the eye movement protocol for ten minutes. By the session’s end, he is able to think of the accident without feeling upset and hold the belief that he can keep his family safe even while thinking of the trauma!

No. Each person’s experience is different. Part of the reason that a single memory might take more than one session to be fully desensitized and reprocessed is that it is part of a neural network of similar life experiences. Depending on the depth and breadth of these experiences, and the age at which they were experienced, a memory may take longer to process. Complex trauma requires more time but can often be fully resolved over time using this technique.

No. There are several phases for the EMDR protocol that precede actual processing using eye movements. I also incorporate person-centered and mindfulness-based approaches, meaning that I view you as the expert on your life and in charge of how counseling proceeds. We will work at your pace with my guidance.

The IFS Institute describes Internal Family Systems as follows:

“IFS is a transformative tool that conceives of every human being as a system of protective and wounded inner parts led by a core Self. We believe the mind is naturally multiple and that is a good thing. Just like members of a family, inner parts are forced from their valuable states into extreme roles within us. Self is in everyone. It can’t be damaged. It knows how to heal.

IFS is…an evidence-based psychotherapy, helping people heal by accessing and healing their protective and wounded inner parts. IFS creates inner and outer connectedness by helping people first access their Self and, from that core, come to understand and heal their parts.” (ifs-institute.com; accessed 4/24)

IFS dovetails very nicely with EMDR in that the different age-states and emotion-states we access during EMDR processing may be conceptualized in IFS as parts of ourselves that are well-intentioned, though likely maladaptive for our adult lives. I draw upon my trainings in Laurel Parnell’s Attachment-Focused EMDR as well as Robin Shapiro’s Ego State work to meld IFS and EMDR, drawing upon each when most appropriate during the flow of the therapy session.

Absolutely. I use both EMDR and IFS to treat addictive patterns, whether Gambling Disorder, addiction to drugs or alcohol, relationship addiction, or any other maladaptive habit pattern. Using the Feeling State Addiction Protocol, created by Robert Miller in 2012, we are able to desensitize pleasant feelings associated with our addiction in much the same way we desensitize uncomfortable feelings linked with traumatic memories. The next step is to reduce the craving for the pleasant emotion and finally process the underlying trauma(s) that drove us to seek the positive feeling so strongly using standard EMDR.

We may also address addictive patterns through an IFS lens. From an IFS perspective, addictions are parts of ourselves that are serving some role in an attempt to help us. They may be conceived as “protectors” in that their goal is to keep us from feeling difficult emotions. For example, someone may drink or gamble when feeling lonely. By recognizing that this drinking or gambling part isn’t “bad,” but rather is attempting to help us to relieve pain, we can get to know it with curiosity and no longer need to battle it. Once we reduce the loneliness our lonely part is experiencing through a process called unburdening and we take on greater care for this part from our own, wise adult energy, the addiction can choose to take on another role in our system. It doesn’t need to medicate the pain anymore both because the pain is reduced and because when it does arise we are able to take care of the hurting part ourselves so the addiction doesn’t have to anymore.