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EMDR for Trauma & PTSD · EMDRIA Certified

AF-EMDR therapist in Los Angeles. Susan Quinn Therapist, LMFT — bringing an attachment-focused approach to clients whose deeper work is relational, developmental, or about who they’ve become.

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8-12 Sessions

Typical for single-incident PTSD

APA Tier 1

Evidence-Based PTSD Treatment

Complex PTSD

Specialisation

Why EMDR for trauma and PTSD

Why EMDR works for trauma when other things haven't.

Trauma doesn’t store like other memories. When something overwhelming happens, the brain’s normal filing system fails — the experience ends up in a kind of cold storage, with image, sensation, emotion, and belief all locked together. Years later, a smell or sound or feeling can fire all of it off at once, as if it’s happening now.

Talk therapy can describe and contextualise this. It can help you understand what happened and why you respond the way you do. What it often can’t do is dissolve the stored material itself. EMDR addresses that directly.

Using bilateral stimulation while you hold the memory in mind, EMDR helps the brain finish the processing that got stuck. The memory remains — but the charge it carried drops away. You can think about it without it overwhelming you. The body stops bracing for it.

For single-incident trauma — an accident, an assault, a medical emergency, a loss — EMDR is often remarkably efficient. For complex PTSD, where the trauma was chronic and relational, the same protocol applies but the arc is longer and more carefully paced.

What EMDR addresses

The trauma presentations
EMDR is most effective for.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

Intrusive memories, flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance, hypervigilance, somatic reactions that won't quiet.

Single-incident trauma. 

Single-incident trauma. 

Accidents, assaults, medical events, sudden losses, natural disasters — discrete experiences that won't stop firing.

Childhood trauma. 

Childhood trauma. 

Abuse, neglect, attachment injuries, witnessing violence — the experiences that shaped how you operate before you had words for them.

Medical trauma. 

Medical trauma. 

Procedures, diagnoses, ICU stays, traumatic births — experiences the body remembers even when the mind has moved on.

Vicarious / secondary trauma.

Vicarious / secondary trauma.

First responders, clinicians, caregivers carrying the weight of repeated exposure to others' trauma.

Grief that won't move.

Grief that won't move.

Loss that stays acute, complicated grief, guilt that won't release.
Is EMDR for PTSD right for you?

An honest assessment of fit.

EMDR is powerful for trauma and PTSD, but it’s not the only path. Here’s where it tends to be the right starting point — and where it isn’t.

EMDR for trauma may be a good fit if

  • A specific memory or set of memories still feels charged years later.
  • You experience flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, or nightmares related to the trauma.
  • Your body reacts to triggers in ways your conscious mind disagrees with.
  • You've tried talk therapy and you understand what happened — but the symptoms haven't shifted.
  • You want a defined, evidence-based treatment arc rather than open-ended therapy.
  • You're at a stable enough place in your life to do trauma work safely.

EMDR may not be the right starting point if

  • EMDR may not be the right starting point if
  • You're in active crisis, current danger, or unstable housing.
  • You have severe untreated dissociation that needs stabilisation first.
  • You're actively using substances in ways that interfere with regulation.
  • Acute suicidality is present — that takes priority and may require higher-level care.
  • You're looking primarily for medication — that requires a psychiatrist (referrals available).
COMMON QUESTIONS

A few things worth knowing.

What's the difference between AF-EMDR and standard EMDR?

Standard EMDR is built to reprocess specific traumatic events. Attachment-Focused EMDR adds a layer: it targets the relational wounds that shaped how you feel about yourself and how you connect with others. The therapist is more actively present and attuned during AF-EMDR, and resource installation is more extensive. The result is that AF-EMDR reaches developmental and relational material that standard EMDR alone often doesn’t.

AF-EMDR builds on standard EMDR with additional training that integrates attachment theory and interpersonal neurobiology into the core EMDR protocol. Clinicians who practice AF-EMDR have completed advanced training beyond basic EMDR certification, with an emphasis on resource installation, relational attunement, and the application of EMDR to developmental and relational wounds.

No. AF-EMDR is particularly powerful for developmental and relational trauma, but it’s also effective for any client whose work involves patterns in connection, self-worth, or felt safety. Many clients come to AF-EMDR after standard EMDR or talk therapy has helped with discrete events but hasn’t shifted the underlying relational template.

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FROM CLIENTS

In their own words.

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AREAS SERVED

A Brentwood practice.

With telehealth across CA.

My office sits on San Vicente Boulevard in Brentwood minutes from Santa Monica, West LA, and Beverly Hills. For clients across California, telehealth makes the same work possible from home.

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Brentwood

Primary office · 90049

Santa Monica

20 min · Telehealth

West Los Angeles

20 min · In-person

Beverly Hills

20 min · Telehealth

Pacific Palisades

20 min · Telehealth

Culver City

20 min · Telehealth

Start with a conversation.

No commitment, no paperwork. A chance to talk through what you’re carrying and see whether EMDR and whether I might be the right fit.

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