EMDR & Trauma Therapy in Middle Tennessee

How Does EMDR Work?

Before processing begins, your therapist will spend time getting to know you, understanding what you want to work through, and making sure you feel prepared for the process.

During EMDR, you’ll bring a specific memory to mind along with the thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations connected to it. Your therapist will guide you through bilateral stimulation, usually through side-to-side eye movements or alternating tapping, while you notice what comes up.

There is no right response, and you don’t have to force anything to happen or retell every detail of what happened. As the process continues, your brain can begin making new connections and the memory may start to feel less intense.

The memory itself doesn’t disappear. The goal is to be able to think about what happened without experiencing the same level of distress or feeling pulled back into it.

How Can EMDR Therapy Help?

Sometimes you understand why you feel or react a certain way, but that understanding hasn’t been enough to change it. A memory may still bring up a strong emotional response, or you may find yourself falling into the same reactions even when you know you’re safe now.

EMDR is commonly used for trauma and PTSD, as well as anxiety, fears, painful memories, and negative beliefs about yourself. It gives you a way to work with what is underneath those reactions instead of only managing them when they show up.

What is Trauma?

Trauma isn’t determined only by what happened. It’s also about what the experience was like for you and how your brain and body responded to it.

Trauma can come from a single experience, such as an assault, accident, loss, divorce, or betrayal. It can also develop through experiences that happen repeatedly over time, including abuse, neglect, family instability, chronic illness, or other situations where you felt frightened, helpless, or alone.

When an experience overwhelms your ability to cope with what is happening, your brain can continue responding as though the danger is still present, even after you are safe.

How Does Trauma Affect You?

Trauma can leave your nervous system stuck in survival mode. You may find yourself constantly on alert, shutting down when things become overwhelming, struggling to trust people, or reacting more strongly than you want to.

You might even understand exactly where those reactions come from and still feel unable to change them. That’s one of the frustrating parts of trauma. Knowing why you feel a certain way doesn’t always stop your brain and body from reacting.

Deep Healing Starts in the Brain

Talking about what happened can help you understand your story, but sometimes understanding it isn’t enough to help you feel different.

TN Mental Wellness uses trauma-focused approaches such as EMDR and Brainspotting to go deeper than talk therapy alone and work with what is keeping you stuck. Emily Runyan and Bethany Legg are trained in EMDR, and our trauma therapists also use Brainspotting and other approaches based on what makes sense for you and the work you’re doing in therapy.

Talk therapy can help you understand your experiences, thoughts, and patterns. Trauma therapy can go deeper by working with the ways those experiences are still being held in your brain and body. At TN Mental Wellness, we use approaches such as EMDR and Brainspotting when talking about what happened hasn’t been enough to help you feel different.
Trauma isn’t only about what happened. It’s also about what the experience was like for you and how your brain and body responded to it. You don’t have to compare your experience to someone else’s or decide whether it was “bad enough” before reaching out.
No. You don’t have to retell every detail of what happened for trauma therapy or EMDR to be helpful. Your therapist will need to understand what you want to work through, but approaches like EMDR allow much of the processing to happen without describing everything out loud.
No. EMDR is commonly used for trauma and PTSD, but it can also be used when anxiety, fears, painful memories, or negative beliefs continue to affect how you feel or respond.
Yes. TN Mental Wellness offers virtual therapy, and EMDR can be provided through telehealth when it is appropriate for your needs. Your therapist can talk with you about how virtual sessions work and whether they are a good fit for the work you want to do.