At BGMHC, we offer Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy women and birthing people who carry the weight of trauma, grief, and systemic stress. Our culturally grounded approach honors your lived experience while helping you reclaim peace in your mind and body.
EMDR Therapy
What Is EMDR Therapy?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based psychotherapy recognized by the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as one of the most effective treatments for trauma, PTSD, and anxiety.
Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR does not require you to describe every detail of what happened. Instead, your therapist guides you through structured phases using bilateral stimulation such as guided eye movements, tapping, or audio tones. This process allows your brain to safely reprocess distressing memories so they lose their emotional charge. The result is not forgetting what happened. It is that what happened no longer controls how you feel today.
At BGMHC, EMDR is delivered by clinicians who understand the intersections of race, gender, family, and faith. You do not have to explain your experience before being believed. You are already seen here.
Why EMDR Can Help Heal
For many women and birthing people, trauma is not a single event but an accumulation of moments: being dismissed by a doctor, hearing an inappropriate comment at work, navigating a complicated birth, or carrying the chronic stress of living in a world that was not built with your safety in mind. Research confirms that EMDR is effective across racial and cultural groups, and its value for women of color is particularly profound because it works at the level of the body and nervous system, not just the mind.
Reclaiming Body Safety After Racial, Medical, and Birth Trauma
For many women and birthing folks, trauma is not a single event but an accumulation of moments: being dismissed by a doctor, hearing a racist comment at work, navigating a complicated birth, or carrying the chronic stress of living in a world that was not built with your safety in mind. Research confirms that EMDR is effective across racial and cultural groups, and its value for women and birthing folks of color is particularly profound because it works at the level of the body and nervous system, not just the mind. EMDR directly addresses layered trauma, including racial trauma, medical neglect, microaggressions, and obstetric violence. Because it works through both body sensations and thoughts, it supports nervous system regulation and reduces the hypervigilance that you may experience daily. It finally allows your body to exhale.
When Talk Therapy Was Not Enough
If you have tried traditional therapy but left feeling re-triggered or emotionally drained, EMDR may be a better fit. Its nonverbal nature makes it safer for clients who have experienced invalidation or tone policing in talk therapy settings. You do not have to walk through every painful memory in detail. Instead, EMDR helps your brain naturally shift the way those memories are stored, so they no longer feel as raw or overwhelming.
EMDR for Complex and Layered Trauma
Trauma is not always a single defining moment. For many Black women, it is a lifetime of accumulated experiences: the childhood you had to grow up in too fast, the relationship that took more than it gave, the medical system that dismissed you, the workplace that asked you to shrink yourself, the grief you never had space to feel. When trauma builds in layers, talk therapy can feel like trying to unpack one box while more keep arriving. EMDR is specifically effective for complex trauma because it does not require you to work through each memory one at a time in sequence. Processing one experience often creates a ripple effect, reducing the emotional intensity of related memories before they are even directly addressed.
Faith, Family, and Community-Honoring Approaches
Healing may include spirituality, ancestral strength, and family connection. Your therapist can integrate faith-based grounding techniques, prayer, or mindfulness rituals that align with your beliefs and values. At BGMHC, your full identity, including your faith, family, history, and joy, is centered in the healing process. Therapy here is a collaboration, not a prescription.
Postpartum Healing and Birth Triggers
After birth, many women experience distress from hospital memories, medical interventions, or feelings of helplessness. EMDR is highly effective for postpartum trauma, anxiety, and depression. It helps quiet intrusive images, rebuild trust in your body, and restore joy in bonding with your baby.
How EMDR Helps With Long-Term Stress and Emotional Exhaustion
When stress has been present long enough, it stops feeling like stress. It feels like who you are. You wake up tired. You move through your days managing everything and everyone while quietly running on empty. For many Black women, this is not a season. It is a pattern that has been normalized across generations.
EMDR works at the level of the nervous system, not just the mind. It helps your brain identify and reprocess the memories, moments, and messages that trained your body to stay on high alert. That might be the weight of being the first, the only, or the strong one. It might be years of code-switching, overperforming, or swallowing your needs to keep the peace.
When the underlying wounds are addressed, the nervous system gets to actually rest. Not just sleep. Rest. EMDR supports a real and lasting shift in how your body holds stress so that exhaustion stops being your baseline and peace becomes genuinely possible.
What EMDR Can Help With
EMDR can support healing across a wide range of experiences, including:
Medical trauma or racialized healthcare experiences
Childhood neglect, abuse, or family trauma
Anxiety, panic attacks, or intrusive memories
Grief and complicated loss
Depression and burnout from chronic stress
Perfectionism, overcontrol, or difficulty resting
Workplace trauma and racial microaggressions
You might relate to thoughts like "I am tired of being the strong one" or "I cannot sleep because the pictures will not stop." EMDR helps release these internal loops so you can reconnect with peace, safety, and rest.
How EDMR Works: What to Expect
Healing does not follow a straight line, but EMDR does follow a clear path. Before any memory processing begins, your therapist takes time to understand your full story, not just your symptoms. There is no pressure to rush. Each phase is intentional, and the pace is always yours to set. Here is what the process looks like from beginning to end.
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Your therapist begins by learning your story. Together you explore your goals, identify key memories or patterns, and map out the experiences most connected to your current symptoms. This phase ensures your care is intentional and personalized from the start.
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Before any memory processing begins, you will build a toolkit of grounding and calming strategies. These resourcing skills help stabilize your nervous system so you always have a way to feel safe, both inside and outside of sessions.
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You and your therapist select a specific memory or theme to focus on. You identify the beliefs, emotions, and body sensations connected to it, creating a clear starting point for reprocessing.
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This is the core of EMDR work. Using bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, tapping, or audio tones, your brain begins reprocessing the targeted memory. Over time, the emotional intensity attached to that memory decreases naturally.
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Once distress has reduced, the focus shifts to strengthening new, empowering beliefs. Statements like "I am safe now" or "I made it through" are reinforced until they feel genuinely true in your body, not just your mind.
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Your therapist guides you through a check-in with your physical sensations to identify any remaining tension or discomfort connected to the memory. This step honors the mind-body connection central to EMDR's effectiveness.
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Every session ends with grounding and containment techniques so you leave feeling stable, regardless of where you are in the reprocessing work. You will never be sent home in the middle of an activated state.
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At the start of subsequent sessions, you and your therapist assess progress, revisit any remaining triggers, and determine the next area to address. Healing is treated as an ongoing, evolving process rather than a fixed endpoint.
EMDR and Nervous System Regulation: Why It Works Beyond Talk Therapy
Understanding something does not always change how you feel about it. You can know, intellectually, that the danger has passed. But if your nervous system never got the message, your body is still bracing. Still scanning. Still holding on.
This is why talk therapy alone does not always reach the root. Language lives in the cortex, the thinking part of the brain. Trauma lives deeper, in the limbic system and the body's stored survival responses. EMDR works at that deeper level by using bilateral stimulation to help the brain shift how a memory is filed. When reprocessing works, a traumatic memory does not disappear. It simply loses its grip. The emotional charge decreases. The body exhales.
For Black women who have experienced chronic stress, racial trauma, or years of hypervigilance, this matters enormously. The goal is not just to function. The goal is to feel safe in your own body again, and EMDR is one of the most effective tools we have for getting there.
EMDR Intensives:
Deeper Healing in Less Time
Work With an EMDR Therapist Who Truly Understands Your Lived Experience
For clients who want to move through trauma more quickly or who have limited availability for weekly sessions, we offer EMDR intensives. An intensive is an extended session or series of sessions held over a shorter period of time, allowing for deeper processing without the week-long gaps between appointments.
EMDR intensives are especially helpful for:
Clients preparing for major life transitions such as birth, surgery, or a new chapter
Those who have had limited progress with weekly therapy and want to go deeper
Women returning to therapy after time away who want to accelerate healing
Clients who travel or have schedules that make weekly sessions difficult
Intensives are available virtually and in person. Contact us to discuss whether an intensive format is the right fit for where you are in your healing.
Meet Our EMDR-Trained Clinicians
Our therapists are clinicians trained in EMDR and trauma-informed care. They bring not only professional expertise but also cultural attunement, compassion, and a deep understanding of the unique stressors faced by women and birthing people.
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Chantal Austin
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, PMH-C
Chantal specializes in trauma-focused therapy, including EMDR, to help clients reprocess painful experiences that feel stuck or overwhelming. She supports Black women, femmes, and non-binary people of color navigating childhood trauma, birth trauma, relationship wounds, and trauma-related anxiety.
MEET CHANTAL -
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Dr. Chyna Hill
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, PMH-C, EMDR Certified
Dr. Hill offers EMDR intensives designed for clients seeking concentrated trauma healing in a structured, supportive format. Intensives provide focused time to process significant experiences more efficiently than traditional weekly therapy, while maintaining safety, preparation, and integration.
REQUEST AN INTENSIVE
Pricing, Insurance, and Access
We accept multiple insurance plans across both states and offer additional options to ensure care is accessible.
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CALIFORNIA
● United Healthcare (Optum)
● Oxford (Optum)
● United Healthcare Medicare Advantage
● Anthem Blue Cross California
● Anthem EAP (Bank of America)
● Blue Shield of California
● Carelon Behavioral Health
● Magellan
● Quest Behavioral Health
● Aetna
● Cigna
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GEORGIA
● United Healthcare (Optum)
● Oxford (Optum)
● United Healthcare Medicare Advantage
● Anthem (Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia)
● Carelon Behavioral Health
● Magellan
● Quest Behavioral Health
● Aetna
● Cigna
In-Person Sessions
Long Beach, California and Atlanta, Georgia
Online Therapy
Available statewide in California and Georgia via secure telehealth
Take the next step
Is EMDR Right for You?
If distressing memories, anxiety, or physical reactions are interfering with your daily life, or if you have been carrying more than you can name, EMDR could be a powerful next step. Whether you are interested in weekly sessions or an intensive format, we will work with you to find the approach that fits your life and your goals.
FAQs About EMDR Therapy
Everything you want to know before your first session.
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CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) focuses primarily on identifying and changing thought patterns through conversation and structured exercises. It works well for many people, but it requires a lot of verbal processing and can sometimes feel re-triggering for those with deep trauma.
EMDR works differently. It targets how memories are stored in the nervous system, not just how you think about them. Key differences include:
You do not need to narrate your trauma in detail. EMDR works through body-based reprocessing, not storytelling.
It addresses trauma stored in the body, not just thoughts in the mind.
It is often faster. Many clients see meaningful shifts in fewer sessions than with traditional talk therapy.
Its nonverbal nature makes it safer for clients who have felt silenced, tone-policed, or dismissed in talk therapy settings.
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No. This is one of the most meaningful things to know before your first session. You do not have to describe everything that happened. You do not have to retell the story of your trauma in detail.
EMDR works by having your brain reprocess memories internally, guided by bilateral stimulation. Your therapist will ask you to bring an image, emotion, or body sensation to mind, but the narration is minimal. Many clients who have felt re-traumatized by talk therapy find EMDR to be a profoundly different experience for exactly this reason.
You stay in control of how much you share at all times.
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EMDR may be a stronger fit if you have tried talk therapy and left sessions feeling re-triggered, emotionally drained, or like you kept circling the same pain without real movement. It is also worth considering if you carry trauma that feels stored in your body, not just your thoughts, or if the idea of narrating your experiences in detail feels unsafe or exhausting.
Unlike traditional therapy, EMDR does not require you to verbally walk through everything that happened. It works by guiding your brain to reprocess memories through bilateral stimulation, which means you can experience meaningful healing without retelling your story in full. Many clients who felt dismissed, tone-policed, or re-traumatized in talk therapy settings find EMDR to be a fundamentally different experience.
If you are unsure, a free 15-minute consultation with one of our therapists is the easiest way to figure out what fits where you are right now.
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Yes. EMDR is highly effective for postpartum and birth-related trauma, anxiety, and distress. It is one of the most used approaches in perinatal mental health care.
If you experienced a traumatic birth, unwanted medical interventions, a NICU stay, or feelings of helplessness or violation during delivery, EMDR can help quiet those intrusive memories and images. It also helps rebuild trust in your body and restore the capacity for joy and connection in bonding with your baby.
Our clinicians specialize in perinatal mental health and hold deep experience supporting Black birthing people specifically.
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Yes, and at BGMHC, this is something we actively welcome. For many Black women, healing is not separate from faith. Spirituality, prayer, ancestral strength, and community are sources of profound resilience and meaning.
Your therapist can integrate faith-based grounding techniques, prayer, scripture-based affirmations, or mindfulness rituals that align with your beliefs and values. Healing here is a collaboration, not a prescription. Your full identity, including your faith and your history, is centered in the process.
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Every healing journey is different, and there is no single answer. That said, many clients begin noticing meaningful shifts in how they respond to stress, in sleep quality, mood, and in how memories feel, within 6 to 12 sessions.
EMDR is generally faster than traditional talk therapy for trauma. For clients with a single incident trauma, results may come in fewer sessions. For complex or layered trauma, including racial trauma, childhood trauma, or multiple losses, the process may take longer. Your therapist will be transparent with you about timelines and progress throughout.
If you want to move more quickly, EMDR intensives are also available and can meaningfully accelerate the timeline.
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Absolutely. EMDR is designed to address complex and layered trauma, not only single-incident events. Many Black women carry trauma that has accumulated over years: childhood experiences, relationship wounds, racial stress, medical trauma, and grief, sometimes all at once.
Your therapist will work with you to identify priorities and create a treatment map, moving through memories and themes at a pace that feels manageable and safe. Processing one memory often has a ripple effect, reducing the emotional charge of related memories even before you directly address them.
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Yes. EMDR is effective for grief, complicated loss, and the emotional pain that lingers after relationships end or change significantly. This includes the loss of a loved one, pregnancy loss, fertility grief, the end of a significant relationship, or the loss of a previous version of yourself.
Grief that feels stuck, that cycles without resolution or that lives in the body as physical heaviness, is exactly the kind of experience EMDR is designed to help move through. Your therapist will support you in honoring the loss while helping your nervous system release what it has been holding.
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A standard EMDR session is typically 50 to 90 minutes, held weekly. An EMDR intensive is an extended format, usually 2 to 4 hours per day across multiple consecutive days, that allows for deeper processing without the week-long gaps between appointments.
Those gaps, while useful for integration, can also slow momentum. In an intensive, your brain can move through material more continuously, which often leads to faster and deeper shifts. Think of it as the difference between painting a room in short bursts over several weeks versus blocking off a full weekend to complete it.
Intensives include the same structured eight-phase EMDR process. The difference is pacing, depth, and the concentrated space available for healing.
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Yes. Online EMDR is available for clients located anywhere in California or Georgia via secure HIPAA-compliant video sessions. Research consistently shows that virtual EMDR is just as effective as in-person care.
Virtual sessions are ideal for clients who prefer the privacy and comfort of their home environment, have limited transportation options, or need flexible scheduling around work, childcare, or other responsibilities.
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The first step is a free 15-minute consultation. This is a low-pressure conversation to talk about what you are carrying, what you are hoping for, and whether EMDR is a good fit for where you are right now. There is no commitment required.
You can book your consultation online, text us directly, or fill out our intake form. Our team typically responds within one business day.
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Yes. EMDR is specifically designed to address complex and layered trauma, not only single incidents. Many of the women we work with carry decades of accumulated experiences: childhood wounds, racial stress, medical trauma, grief, relationship pain, and the exhaustion of being expected to hold it all together. EMDR does not require you to tackle each memory individually in a linear sequence. Processing one experience often reduces the emotional intensity of related ones before they are even directly addressed. Your therapist will help you create a treatment plan that maps out your history at a pace that is manageable and intentional. Complex trauma is not a barrier to healing here. It is something our clinicians are specifically trained to support.
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It is normal to feel some emotional activation during sessions, and your therapist is trained to keep that activation within a safe and manageable range. EMDR is not about flooding you with emotion. It is about working within what the field calls the window of tolerance, the space where your nervous system can process without shutting down or spiraling.
Before any memory reprocessing begins, you will spend time in Phase 2 building grounding and stabilization skills. These are yours to use both during and between sessions. Every session also ends with a closure process so you are never sent home in an activated state.
If at any point a session feels like too much, you can slow down, pause, or shift focus. You stay in control throughout. Most clients describe the process as more manageable than they expected, and many find it gentler than talk therapy where they were expected to narrate difficult experiences out loud.
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The most important thing to know is that you do not need to prepare a full account of your trauma. You will not be asked to tell your story in detail at your first session.
Your first appointment is primarily a conversation. Your therapist will take time to understand your history, your goals, and what has been feeling most heavy or stuck. You will have space to ask questions, share concerns, and get a feel for whether the fit is right. A few things that can support you going into that first session: arrive with some openness about what you hope healing could look like, even if you cannot fully name it yet. Wear something comfortable. Give yourself a little buffer time before and after so you are not rushing in and out.
If anything specific is weighing on you before your first appointment, you are always welcome to reach out to our team beforehand. We want you to feel ready, not pressured.
Still have questions?
Our team is happy to talk through anything before you book.
You deserve more than survival.
You deserveto heal.
Book a free 15-minute consultation. Not ready yet?
Contact us or read our blog.