EMDR Therapy in Los AngelesHealing at the speed of the nervous system
In-person and online EMDR therapy, based in Brentwood, Los Angeles
Our approach to EMDR is attachment-focused, somatic, and relational. Rather than delivering EMDR as a standalone technique, we integrate it within the psychodynamic framework that guides all of our work together.
You don't lose the memory. You lose its grip on your present.
Our ApproachEMDR within a relational, somatic framework
EMDR is often delivered as a standalone protocol — identify the target, process it, move on. We integrate it into a deeper therapeutic framework. Caty Pooley, LPCC brings EMDR training alongside certification in somatic trauma therapy and a psychodynamic, attachment-focused clinical orientation. That shapes how every phase is delivered.
Beyond single events
Many people don't have one traumatic incident to point to. What they carry is a history of relational experiences — conditional love, emotional unavailability, environments where they learned to perform rather than feel safe. Attachment-focused EMDR is built to reach those patterns.
Nervous system as foundation
Somatic training means the preparation phase involves genuine work with your body. You learn to read your nervous system and build capacity to stay present with activation — not a brief relaxation exercise before the "real" work, but the foundation that makes processing possible.
The relationship heals
For people whose wounds are relational, healing happens in relationship. The safety between you and your therapist isn't just a container for EMDR — it's part of what does the work.
Woven into your therapy
Processing sessions don't exist in isolation. What surfaces in EMDR gets woven into ongoing psychodynamic work — exploring what emerged, what it connects to, and how it shifts the patterns you've been examining.
The Process · Eight PhasesWhat to expect, step by step
Scroll through to see how each of the eight phases unfolds and how the emotional charge of a target memory typically shifts as you move through them.
We get to know what you're carrying.
You bring what's been hard into the room. Together we identify the memories, beliefs, and patterns that are likely to become targets. Nothing is processed yet — we're building a map.
You build the internal resources to do this safely.
We work somatically — learning to track your nervous system, developing grounding practices, and building genuine capacity to stay present with activation. This is the foundation that makes deeper processing possible.
A specific memory or belief comes into focus.
You identify the key elements of one target: the image, the negative belief about yourself, the emotion, where you feel it in your body. We measure the current emotional charge before processing begins.
This is the reprocessing itself, one set at a time.
You hold the target in mind while following guided eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones. Between sets, you pause and notice what shifts. The work continues until the emotional charge around the target resolves.
A steadier belief starts to take hold.
Once the old charge has cleared, there's room for something new to move in — the belief about yourself you actually want, something true and steady. We deepen it with bilateral sets until it feels less like an idea and more like something you carry.
We check your body for any leftover tension.
Once the charge has cleared, we slow down and notice what's left — any tension or holding that still lingers. If something remains, we stay with it and keep processing. The goal is integration that lives in the body, not just understanding that lives in the mind.
You leave each session grounded.
Every session ends with deliberate grounding — back to the room, back to your week. Whatever surfaces between sessions becomes material we bring back together.
We see how you're doing since last session, and decide what to work on next.
At the next session we return to the target and notice what's shifted: what settled, what's still tender, what surfaced during the week. Some work resolves in a few processing sessions. Relational and developmental patterns take longer — and the relationship between us holds it all.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. While EMDR was developed for PTSD, it is widely used for anxiety disorders, panic, and the chronic nervous system activation that comes from unprocessed experiences. If your anxiety has roots in past events or relational patterns, EMDR targets what's driving it rather than managing symptoms on the surface.
In couples therapy, deeper themes are uncovered in the frequent fights, allowing the couples to look at their arguments with a new lens and path forward.
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It depends. For a single, clearly defined event, meaningful resolution often happens within 3–6 processing sessions plus preparation. For attachment wounds, relational patterns, or long-standing anxiety, the work takes longer — there are more targets, and the preparation phase requires building more internal resources first.
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Yes. EMDR doesn't require a detailed narrative. It works with whatever your mind and body hold — images, sensations, emotions, beliefs — even when the full memory isn't accessible.
For many people with relational or developmental trauma, memories aren't stored as coherent events. EMDR can work with fragments, body sensations, and the negative core beliefs that formed even without explicit recall.
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You stay fully conscious and in control throughout. It is not hypnosis. During processing, you hold a target in mind while following bilateral stimulation — usually guided eye movements or gentle tapping. Between sets, your therapist pauses and asks what you notice.
Some people experience shifts in the memory, emotional releases, new connections, or physical sensations. You can slow down or pause at any point.
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Yes. EMDR is effective via secure telehealth using on-screen visual tracking or self-administered tapping. Caty offers both in-person sessions at our Brentwood office and telehealth for clients throughout California.
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Talk therapy works primarily through verbal processing and cognitive understanding. EMDR accesses stored material through the nervous system directly, allowing the brain to reprocess experiences that insight alone hasn't resolved. We integrate EMDR with individual therapy rather than replacing it.
Gain deeper Meaning.
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