EMDR & Trauma Services
in Hermosa Beach, CA

While trauma is typically associated with Post Traumatic Stress DIsorder (PTSD), the impact of trauma is often wide-reaching.  Complex trauma can lead to symptoms of depression and anxiety, and can complicate relationships, work, school, and an overall sense of well-being.

Traditional talk therapy doesn’t always help. In fact, it can sometimes be re-traumatizing and make it worse. EMDR is an evidence-based treatment for trauma that effectively treats trauma at its core without re-traumatizing.

“Most people think that therapy involves only talking about problems. However, one aspect of EMDR is that you do not have to talk in detail about a trauma for it to be digested by your own information processing system.”

— Francine Shapiro & Margot Silk Forrest “EMDR: The Breakthrough ‘Eye Movement’ Therapy for Overcoming Anxiety, Stress, and Trauma”

Research has shown Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to be extremely effective.

The Department of Defense, the International Society for Trauma Stress Studies, and the American Psychiatric Association all recommend EMDR as an effective treatment for trauma and/or PTSD.

EMDR is an extremely effective approach to treating those who struggle with a history of trauma.  Trauma can impact us in ways that we don’t even realize — it may increase our levels of stress and anxiety, and contribute to substance use issues, sleep disturbances, flashbacks, negative beliefs about ourselves, and even depression.

EMDR is an effective way to treat trauma without re-traumatizing, and the outcomes can have tremendous impact.  When people do the work to heal their trauma, they can shift a painful legacy of intergenerational trauma and change the dynamics within themselves and sometimes, even within their families.  Hurt people hurt people.  Healed people heal people.    

At Beach Cities Psychotherapy, we are all trauma-informed therapists.  We offer EMDR both in weekly therapeutic sessions and EMDR Intensives.  Often people choose to create Therapeutic Retreats using EMDR Intensives as a starting point.  

We are very attuned to the impact of trauma on our clients. We are careful not to re-traumatize.  If we are going to work with you around your trauma, we are going to treat it and get to the core.

To understand more about EMDR, visit the Emdria website or check out this video