Virtual EMDR Therapy in Salt Lake City

Salt Lake City has always been a place of nat­ur­al beau­ty and close-knit com­mu­ni­ties. The unique nat­ur­al won­der of the Great Salt Lake, the serene beau­ty of Tem­ple Square, and the archi­tec­tur­al genius of the City and Coun­ty Build­ing all tes­ti­fy to the city’s awe­some­ness. Just as influ­en­tial is the dark side of SLC. The city exists in an earth­quake-prone area and is at a much high­er risk of earth­quake dam­age when com­pared to Utah’s aver­age and the nation­al aver­age. Added to that is the unwant­ed pres­ence of vio­lent crimes. From Jan­u­ary 2019 through Sep­tem­ber 2023, there were 4,317 cas­es of aggra­vat­ed assault, accord­ing to the Police. Homi­cides, arson, and gang vio­lence also rear their ugly heads on occa­sion.

Any expe­ri­ence with the dark side of Salt Lake City can cause trau­ma or anx­i­ety. Whether the expe­ri­ence is direct or indi­rect is irrel­e­vant. You don’t have to active­ly par­tic­i­pate in a trau­mat­ic event to feel its effects. If you’re a res­i­dent of SLC, you already know just how emo­tion­al­ly intense these neg­a­tive encoun­ters can’t be. What you prob­a­bly don’t know is the impor­tance of address­ing any neg­a­tive emo­tion­al response to these encoun­ters before it inter­feres with your dai­ly life.

A con­ve­nient and effec­tive approach to heal­ing from trau­ma or anx­i­ety you may have encoun­tered as a res­i­dent of Salt Lake City is Vir­tu­al EMDR Ther­a­py. 

EMDR Therapy 101

Eye Move­ment Desen­si­ti­za­tion and Repro­cess­ing (EMDR) ther­a­py is a unique approach to treat­ing PTSD and oth­er effects of trau­ma, anx­i­ety, and depres­sion.

EMDR uses bilat­er­al stim­u­la­tion to acti­vate both sides of the brain, trig­ger­ing the body’s nat­ur­al abil­i­ty to heal in the process. Much like how the body can recov­er from a phys­i­cal wound, ther­a­pists who adopt this process believe sim­i­lar heal­ing can hap­pen with an emo­tion­al wound.

Unlike tra­di­tion­al cog­ni­tive behav­ioral ther­a­py (CBT), EMDR doesn’t try to alter your emo­tions. It tar­gets the mem­o­ry of the trau­mat­ic event and intro­duces pos­i­tive infor­ma­tion to the brain, remind­ing it that the trau­mat­ic event is over.

At the end of suc­cess­ful EMDR ther­a­py, clients can still rec­ol­lect the trau­mat­ic event but with less emo­tion­al inten­si­ty this time. For exam­ple, a rape vic­tim will move from feel­ing hor­ror to real­iz­ing that they’ve sur­vived a ter­ri­ble experience—the same mem­o­ry but with a pos­i­tive­ly dif­fer­ent emo­tion­al theme.

What can EMDR help with

EMDR ther­a­py is a spe­cial ther­a­py tech­nique. It’s main­ly used for treat­ing:

• PTSD
• Depres­sion
• Anx­i­ety
• Oth­er trau­ma-relat­ed con­di­tions

EMDR can help with experiences in the past, symptoms in the present, and fears in the future such as: 

• Nat­ur­al dis­as­ter anx­i­ety
  • EMDR can help reduce the fear response trig­gered by smoke smells or light tremors.
• Urban Safe­ty
  • Process fears relat­ed to vio­lent crimes, mak­ing you feel more at ease in your neigh­bor­hood.
• Gen­er­al Stress Reduc­tion
  • Devel­op bet­ter cop­ing mech­a­nisms for the var­i­ous stres­sors unique to our grow­ing city.

How Does Virtual EMDR Therapy Work

EMDR ther­a­py can be done vir­tu­al­ly, depend­ing on your pref­er­ence. Like the in-per­son ver­sion, your ther­a­pist will still rely on bilat­er­al stim­u­la­tion along­side stan­dard EMDR pro­to­col and process­es.

The sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence is you’ll be par­tic­i­pat­ing vir­tu­al­ly from a place that’s con­ve­nient for you.

Vir­tu­al EMDR ther­a­py has all the same ben­e­fits as telether­a­py.

• Con­ve­nient — you get to choose when and where your ses­sions hap­pen.
• Eas­i­er — you don’t need to fac­tor in com­mute time, traf­fic, or hang­ing out in your therapist’s wait­ing room.
• Read­i­ly avail­able — per­fect for peo­ple with mobil­i­ty issues and any­one liv­ing in a remote area.
• Saves cost— depend­ing on your health­care provider, vir­tu­al EMDR ther­a­py saves mon­ey. No trav­el expens­es or park­ing fees are nec­es­sary, either.

Ther­a­pists approach EMDR ther­a­py in dif­fer­ent ways — as long as the fun­da­men­tal process­es remain intact. Vir­tu­al EMDR ther­a­py uses the same eight phas­es of treat­ment, includ­ing:

• His­to­ry tak­ing and treat­ment plan­ning
• Prepa­ra­tion and expla­na­tion of the treat­ment
• Mem­o­ry acti­va­tion
• Mem­o­ry desen­si­ti­za­tion
• Instal­la­tion via bilat­er­al stim­u­la­tion
• Body scan (to check for any resid­ual phys­i­cal ten­sion from the mem­o­ry)
• Clo­sure (using self-sooth­ing tech­niques)
• Reeval­u­a­tion (check­ing to see if the trau­mat­ic mem­o­ry needs more pro­cess­ing)

How bilateral stimulation happens virtually

Although sev­er­al ways exist to acti­vate both sides of the brain (i.e., bilat­er­al stim­u­la­tion), the most com­mon is through side-to-side eye move­ments. Oth­ers include audi­to­ry cues, phys­i­cal tap­ping, and vibrat­ing hand­held devices.

I use an online pro­gram to coor­di­nate side-to-side eye move­ments vir­tu­al­ly. Under my instruc­tions, you can look at your screen and move your eyes back and forth.

Some oth­er ther­a­pists sug­gest using head­phones to acti­vate audi­to­ry bilat­er­al stim­u­la­tion. 

EMDR Therapy Salt Lake City

If recent events have left you feel­ing anx­ious, on edge, or strug­gling to feel safe, vir­tu­al EMDR might be the key to reclaim­ing your peace of mind.

It doesn’t mat­ter if it’s old trau­ma, new trau­ma, Big T or Lit­tle T trau­ma, anx­i­ety, or any oth­er life-dis­rupt­ing emo­tion. EMDR ther­a­py remains effec­tive and is relied upon by at least 100,000 clin­i­cians. 

As a trau­ma-informed and licensed EMDR ther­a­pist serv­ing the Salt Lake City area, I’m here to guide you through this heal­ing journey—all from the com­fort and safe­ty of your home.

Sched­ule your free 15-minute con­sul­ta­tion