What to Expect Starting EMDR Therapy
Starting therapy—especially a new kind of therapy—can bring up a lot of uncertainty. If you’re new to EMDR or even to therapy in general, it’s completely normal to feel nervous or unsure about what to expect. Many people worry they’ll have to dive straight into painful memories or talk about everything all at once. But EMDR therapy, especially for beginners, begins gently and intentionally.
As a therapist specializing in trauma therapy for women dealing with relational trauma—where old wounds are showing up in current relationships—I want you to know: you won’t be asked to relive everything at once. In fact, EMDR therapy begins not with intensity, but with understanding your story and helping you build internal tools for safety and support. That early process alone can begin to bring relief.
Why New Clients Hesitate to Start Therapy
You’re not alone if you’ve had thoughts like:
“I don’t know what to say.”
“My experiences weren’t that bad—do I even need therapy?”
“What if therapy makes me feel worse before I feel better?”
These are common concerns, especially for women navigating the emotional impacts of relational trauma. Many of my clients come in feeling overwhelmed or unsure if they're “doing it right.” Others fear they'll have to rehash every painful childhood memory just to start healing. These worries are valid—and they’re exactly why the beginning stages of EMDR therapy are designed to feel steady, clear, and grounded.
How EMDR Therapy Helps Ease You In
EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured yet flexible trauma therapy that helps you process stuck memories and the patterns they create—often in relationships, boundaries, or self-worth.
What makes EMDR therapy approachable for beginners is that we go at your pace. The goal isn’t to flood you with intensity, but to untangle what’s no longer serving you. EMDR can help reduce reactivity, build inner stability, and gently shift relational patterns that feel stuck. Other clients have mentioned they have talked about trauma in therapy before but feel no change. It helps to know EMDR is an evidence-based approach to treat trauma. When we work on your trauma, it will be different than just talking about it.
Whether this is your first time in therapy or you’ve tried talk therapy before, EMDR offers a way to work through the past in a more embodied and contained way.
What to Expect from Your First EMDR Sessions
1. History-Taking (Getting to Know Your Story)
Our first few sessions focus on understanding what brings you in and how trauma may be showing up in your life today. We’ll talk about relationship dynamics, life experiences, and the ways you’ve learned to cope. You don’t have to remember everything or tell your whole story at once—just enough to help us start seeing patterns and identifying where you feel stuck.
This part of the process is collaborative. You are always in control of how much you share and when. You can share a summary level of information (like telling me the title of a chapter in a book versus reading me the chapter). We don’t want to activate the trauma fully until reprocessing.
2. EMDR Resourcing (Building Your Internal Toolkit)
Before we begin any memory processing, we focus on “resourcing.” That means developing and practicing internal strategies that help you feel safe, grounded, and emotionally regulated. This might include visualizations, calming techniques, or identifying supportive attachment figures for you. We also can explore and provide resources for hesitations or concerns about starting EMDR therapy during this stage.
Resourcing isn’t just preparation—it’s healing in itself. For many clients, they feel emotionally grounded, lighter, and empowered as they experience EMDR resourcing. These sessions can help build confidence in yourself and in the process.
3. (Optional) Early Reprocessing for Some Clients
For clients dealing with recent or single-event traumas, it may feel appropriate to move into reprocessing sooner. In those cases, EMDR can be short-term and focused, often requiring just a few 90-minute sessions to meet specific goals to resolve the acute stress symptoms. Whether your work is short-term or part of a longer healing journey, the structure of EMDR helps keep the process targeted and contained.
Ready to Explore EMDR Therapy in Dallas?
If you’re curious about how EMDR therapy could help you shift long-standing patterns in your relationships or feel more grounded in your everyday life, I invite you to reach out. Whether this is your first time in therapy or you're new to EMDR, you don’t have to figure it out alone.
📍 Offering EMDR therapy in Dallas and online across Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, and Florida
💬 Schedule a free consultation or send a message to learn more about how EMDR therapy might support your healing.
EMDRIA has many resources to help you learn more about EMDR Therapy if you’re someone who wants to understand more before reaching out.
You’re allowed to begin gently—and I’m here to walk with you through it.
