Somatic EMDR Therapy
Rooted Trauma Recovery
Somatic EMDR In Bellingham, WA + Extended Sessions for Seattle Clients
Move through what holds you back. Reclaim self-trust and meaning after trauma.
In the midst of devastating loss, a part of you begins to believe you don’t deserve support.
You tell yourself others have it worse, or that you should be over it by now. You might retreat from life, hoping time will mend your heartbreak. It’s hard to imagine returning to the world after life betrayed you in a way you never thought possible. Traumatic loss leaves traces that are not only emotional but physiological, disrupting your ability to feel present, safe, and connected.
When heartbreak remains unresolved, your body freezes in time.
You might find yourself moving through life in fragments, detached from reality, dulled in emotion, unable to feel joy even when you try. Over time, it can start to seem like your pain is too much for others to hold, or that you are somehow to blame. Life does not have to stay this way. At Intra, we promise to honor your suffering, and your innate resilience.
Somatic EMDR can help you break free from:
Chronic regret for past decisions
Constant burnout
Eroding confidence
Preoccupation with the life unlived
People-pleasing tendencies
Emotional distance in relationships
A persistent sense of emptiness
How it Works
Your body is carrying what your mind could not.
Feeling stuck in a fog after a loss or withdrawn during ongoing grief doesn't mean you're weak. It means your loss was too much to comprehend all at once.
Your mind compartmentalized your body’s pain to help you survive. Somatic EMDR restores this essential communication so you can integrate your loss and move forward, with or without closure.
The human brain is designed to overcome hardship, but the body needs to be invited into the process. We'll honor the pace your nervous system needs to feel safe, grounded, and present. Your mind’s creative intelligence can only emerge once your body feels connected and secure.
Traditional EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) alleviates distress from traumatic memories through bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, tapping, or alternating sounds. While EMDR is proven effective, Somatic EMDR goes deeper by recognizing the body as central to healing complex trauma and loss.
From Overwhelm
To Connection
Together, we'll turn toward your felt experience rather than overriding your body's signals. You'll learn techniques to:
→ Build awareness of internal and external resources
→ Create relational safety
→ Witness your inner experience without judgment
→ Strengthen your capacity to be with challenging emotions
→ Ease into tender places without panic or shutdown
Somatic EMDR helps your nervous system reconnect with what once felt too overwhelming to process. Through body-based awareness and trauma reprocessing, you can integrate fragmented experiences and restore inner safety, meaning, and embodied presence.
Our Process
1. Complete an Inquiry Form
Before we begin, you’ll be asked to complete a brief inquiry form. This helps me get a clearer sense of who you are, what you’re seeking, and how I can best support you.
2. Intake Process and Preparation
During your intake process, we’ll explore a rough outline of your treatment plan and what to expect. We’ll establish your goals and lay the foundation for somatic EMDR.
3. In-Depth Extended Sessions
Once you have adequate resourcing, grounding, and regulation skills established, we will add on 2-hour somatic EMDR sessions for deeper processing.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Traumatic memories can become “stuck” in the brain, leaving parts of you frozen in the moment of what happened. Instead of recognizing the past as over, your brain and body may react as if the trauma is happening right now. EMDR helps your nervous system reprocess these experiences so they can be stored as memories—rather than ongoing threats. Over time, the emotional charge softens, and you can recall what happened without becoming flooded or disconnected.
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Somatic EMDR builds on traditional EMDR by centering the body in the healing process. Beyond eye movements or bilateral tapping, we incorporate full body movements such as twists, swaying, and intuitive gestures to release stuck trauma responses. These movements can happen while seated, standing, on a yoga mat, or while walking.
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Anyone struggling after experiencing trauma that disrupted the body-mind's capacity to adapt. You may experience:
· Emotional symptoms: Disconnection, fear, anxiety, panic, difficulty feeling comforted, anger, shame
· Psychological symptoms: Low self-esteem, feeling unreal, negative self-talk, self-blame, loss of interest in activities
· Relational patterns: Withdrawal, isolation, hostility, unexpressed resentment, emotional dysregulation
· Physical symptoms: Body tension, digestive issues, headaches, chronic pain
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I offer both in-person and online appointments to make support as accessible and convenient as possible. In-person sessions will be held in my office in Bellingham, WA. 1.5 hours from Seattle and Vancouver, Canada
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50 minute sessions are $240 3x/month. For deeper trauma and grief processing, you have the option to add 1 hour and 40 minute sessions for $480.
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I am an out-of-network provider. That means I don’t work directly with any insurance companies, however you may have out-of-network benefits and can find out more about what your insurance provides by calling them to inquire.
I am happy to provide you with the necessary paperwork (superbill / receipt) for you to submit to your insurance company for possible reimbursement for a portion of the session fee. All sessions are paid by you upfront and you have the potential to be reimbursed down the road directly through your insurance.
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Fill out my contact form to get started.
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Bilateral movement asks your brain to do two things at once, taxing working memory: "I am turning my attention toward this disturbing event/emotion/sensation while practicing this new behavior at the same time." This creates novelty that puts you in a learning zone, stimulates neuroplasticity, and allows your brain to update the way old memories and stories are stored.
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Somatic therapy is a broad approach that includes body-based psychotherapies using the body as a valid source of information. Somatic EMDR is one specific intervention within this larger approach.
