EMDR & EMDR Intensives in Minneapolis, MN
You can remember what happened without having to relive it.
You may know the experience is over, but it still feels like it has a hold on you.
Some experiences stay with us long after they've ended. You may find yourself replaying memories, avoiding reminders, feeling emotionally overwhelmed, or reacting in ways that don't make sense to you.
It's common to know something happened in the past while still feeling the impact of it in the present.
You might notice:
Certain memories feel as vivid as the day they happened
Feeling overwhelmed by reminders of the past
Avoiding people, places, conversations, or experiences
Feeling emotionally reactive or easily triggered
Shame, guilt, or self-blame that won't go away
Knowing you're safe, but not fully feeling it
You may wonder:
"Why does this still affect me?"
"Why can't I just let it go?"
"Why do I keep reacting this way?"
"Will I always feel like this?"
Your mind and body have been doing their best to make sense of what you've been through. Sometimes, even when life has moved forward, certain experiences can continue to show up in unexpected ways, through memories, emotions, beliefs about yourself, or reactions that feel bigger than you'd like them to.
EMDR helps your brain process experiences that still feel unfinished, so they can take up less space in your day-to-day life. The goal isn't to forget what happened, but to help it feel like something that happened in the past rather than something you're still carrying with you.
EMDR Therapy can help you feel less weighed down by the past and more connected to the life you're living today.
EMDR Therapy can help the past have less power over your present
How I can Help
Vanessa Robinson, MA, LPCC, is an EMDR trained therapist in Minneapolis specializing in trauma, complex trauma, anxiety, and overwhelming life experiences.
If you're considering EMDR, chances are you've already spent a lot of time trying to understand what happened and how it has impacted you. You may know where your patterns come from, yet still find yourself pulled back into old emotions, beliefs, memories, or reactions.
EMDR offers an opportunity to move beyond understanding and toward processing. Together, we'll help your brain work through experiences that continue to feel painful, overwhelming, or unresolved so they no longer have the same hold on your life.
Whether through weekly EMDR therapy or an EMDR intensive, we'll move at a pace that feels right for you, with the goal of helping you feel less weighed down by the past, more at ease in your present, more connected to yourself again, and able to shift the negative beliefs that have been shaped by what you've been through.
Curious About EMDR?
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EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy that helps you work through experiences that still feel painful, overwhelming, or hard to move past. You may understand what happened, know it’s over, and still find yourself reacting as if it’s happening in the present.
Sometimes our brains hold onto experiences in a way that keeps them feeling close through painful memories, strong emotions, body responses, or beliefs about ourselves. EMDR helps create space for those experiences to feel less overwhelming and less connected to who you are today.
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EMDR is a collaborative process that moves at a pace that feels supportive for you. Before we begin processing painful experiences, we’ll make sure you have tools to stay grounded, connected to the present, and able to come back to yourself when difficult emotions or memories come up.
Together, we’ll identify what you want to work through, the beliefs you’ve been carrying about yourself, and what you want to believe or feel about yourself now. We’ll decide what experiences feel important to explore and how deeply you want to go.
During EMDR processing, the goal is not to overwhelm you or make you relive what happened. We’re working to help your brain and nervous system process these experiences in a new way so they feel less intense, less present, and less connected to old beliefs about yourself.
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Sometimes insight isn’t the missing piece. You can understand why something affects you and still feel the impact of it.
EMDR works with the experiences that shaped how you see yourself, the world, and what feels safe. It can help shift painful beliefs, reduce triggers, and create more space to respond from who you are now and not just from what you’ve been through.
You don’t have to share every detail of a painful experience or repeatedly talk through what happened. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements or tapping) to support your brain’s natural processing system, helping experiences feel less overwhelming and less connected to old beliefs about yourself.
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EMDR may be a good fit if you’ve spent a lot of time trying to understand yourself, make sense of your experiences, or do the work but you still feel impacted by what happened.
You may know where your patterns come from. You may know the past is the past. And yet, certain emotions, beliefs, or reactions still show up in ways you wish they didn’t.
EMDR may be a good fit if you’re curious about why certain things still feel so big and want to explore healing in a way that helps create real change not just more understanding.
EMDR may not be the best fit if you’re looking for therapy that is only focused on talking through what happened. Your story matters, and we will make space for it, but this work also focuses on helping your brain and nervous system respond differently to the experiences that have shaped you.
Still have questions? Check out more info and research here at EMDRIA.
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An EMDR intensive is a focused way to do deeper EMDR work in a shorter amount of time. Instead of meeting weekly over a longer period, we set aside dedicated time (a half day, full day, or two days) to focus on the experiences, patterns, or beliefs you want to work through.
EMDR intensives can be a good fit if you have a busy schedule, are looking for a more concentrated approach, or don’t want to spend months slowly moving through one specific issue.
During an intensive, we still move at the pace your brain and nervous system can handle. We’ll make sure you have the grounding, support, and tools needed before moving into processing so you can do this work in a way that feels safe and manageable.
EMDR intensives are not covered by insurance and are a private-pay option.
Still wondering what in the world EMDR Therapy is?
Check out these videos to get a better understanding about EMDR. At Abound & Flourish Counseling, we often hear “EMDR is weird but it works.” Find more articles and information here.
“Unprocessed memories not only can intensify our sensations and emotional responses, they can also prevent us from feeling.”
— Francine Shapiro
Ready for something to feel different?
If you’re tired of feeling stuck in the same patterns, reactions, or pain, EMDR may offer a different path forward. Schedule a free consultation and we can explore whether this work feels right for you.