EMDR Therapy in Dallas & Online in 42 States
When the Past Still Feels Present
You may understand intellectually that something is over—and still feel your mind or body reacting as though it is happening now.
A memory may bring an immediate wave of fear, shame, anger, or helplessness. A present-day interaction may trigger a reaction that feels much bigger than the situation. You might avoid certain places, conversations, sensations, or reminders because they activate something you cannot simply reason your way out of.
Sometimes the experience is clearly traumatic. Other times, there is no single defining event—just a series of experiences that changed how safe, worthy, capable, or trusting you feel.
EMDR therapy can help your brain process experiences that continue to shape your emotions, beliefs, relationships, and nervous-system responses in the present.
EMDR Therapy at a Glance
Practical details to help you decide whether EMDR therapy at Tella Psychology may be the right next step.
- In-person EMDR therapy in North Dallas
- Online throughout Texas and participating PSYPACT states
- Provided by Dr. Jessica Klement, a licensed psychologist
- Advanced training in EMDR 2.0 and EMDR-IFS
- Standard and extended sessions available
- Individualized preparation and pacing
- Private pay with out-of-network support
- HSA and FSA cards accepted
You do not need to know whether EMDR is the right treatment before contacting us. We can discuss your concerns and possible next steps during the consultation.
You May Benefit From EMDR If You:
Feel emotionally or physically activated by reminders of the past
Experience intrusive memories, nightmares, avoidance, or hypervigilance
Know that you are safe now but do not consistently feel safe
Carry persistent beliefs such as “I’m not safe,” “It was my fault,” or “I’m not enough”
Become overwhelmed, shut down, or disconnected during conflict
Have insight into your patterns but still feel unable to change them
Continue to experience distress related to medical treatment, childbirth, loss, or another painful event
Have tried talk therapy but feel that certain reactions remain stuck
Want help processing an experience without recounting every detail aloud
You do not need to decide for yourself whether an experience “counts” as trauma. We can begin by understanding what is happening now and determine together whether EMDR is an appropriate part of your treatment.
What Is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a structured psychotherapy approach originally developed to treat trauma and post-traumatic stress.
When an experience has not been fully processed, reminders of it can continue to activate emotions, beliefs, body sensations, and survival responses associated with the original event. You may logically know that the situation is different now while another part of you continues to respond as though the old danger is still present.
During EMDR, you briefly bring aspects of a distressing experience to mind while engaging in bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements, alternating sounds, or tapping. This process supports the brain’s natural capacity to integrate the experience.
The goal is not to erase the memory. You will still know what happened. Ideally, however, the memory begins to feel more like something that happened in the past rather than something your mind and body must continue responding to in the present.
What Can Change Through EMDR Therapy?
EMDR can help reduce the emotional intensity associated with painful experiences and create room for more adaptive beliefs.
For example:
“I’m not safe” may begin to shift toward “I survived, and I can recognize safety now.”
“It was my fault” may shift toward “I was not responsible for what happened.”
“I am powerless” may shift toward “I have choices now.”
“I’m not good enough” may shift toward “My worth is not determined by what happened to me.”
“My body betrayed me” may shift toward a more compassionate and supportive relationship with your body.
These shifts are not positive affirmations imposed on top of unresolved pain. They emerge as the memory is processed and your present-day perspective becomes more accessible.
Concerns We May Address With EMDR
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EMDR has a strong evidence base for PTSD. It may help with intrusive memories, nightmares, avoidance, hypervigilance, shame, guilt, and the feeling that the traumatic experience is still happening.
For people with repeated, relational, or developmental trauma, treatment may move more gradually. Preparation, stabilization, internal trust, and emotional regulation may need to occur before directly reprocessing traumatic memories.
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Early experiences can influence what you expect from relationships and how you respond to closeness, conflict, rejection, and vulnerability.
EMDR may help process experiences that contributed to beliefs such as “I’m unlovable,” “People always leave,” or “I have to take care of everyone.” Treatment can support greater flexibility and safety in present-day relationships without reducing every difficulty to childhood.
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Some anxiety is reinforced by earlier experiences of failure, criticism, humiliation, unpredictability, or feeling responsible for preventing something bad from happening.
EMDR can target the memories and beliefs that continue to fuel current anxiety. It may be particularly useful when you understand that a fear is disproportionate but still experience an immediate emotional or physical reaction.
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Medical experiences can produce fear, helplessness, grief, anger, or loss of trust in your body. This may follow childbirth, surgery, hospitalization, a frightening diagnosis, painful treatment, or feeling dismissed by healthcare providers.
EMDR can help process the emotional impact of these experiences. When chronic pain or illness is ongoing, treatment focuses on reducing trauma-related distress and suffering—not suggesting that symptoms are imaginary or promising to eliminate a medical condition.
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Chronic pain and illness can involve grief, fear, helplessness, changes in identity, and a loss of trust in your body. Past medical experiences and ongoing stress may also affect how your nervous system responds to pain and uncertainty.
EMDR may help process traumatic medical experiences and reduce the emotional distress associated with pain or illness. The goal is not to suggest that symptoms are imaginary or promise to eliminate a medical condition, but to reduce suffering and support a more compassionate relationship with your body.
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EMDR does not remove grief or encourage you to detach from someone you loved. It may help when traumatic circumstances, guilt, regret, or disturbing images interfere with the ability to remember the person or experience more fully.
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When recurring nightmares are connected to trauma, fear, helplessness, or unresolved experiences, EMDR may help reduce their emotional intensity and frequency. Treatment may also incorporate imagery rehearsal and other evidence-based strategies for nightmares.
Meet Your EMDR Therapist
Dr. Jessica Klement
Teens & Adults
Dr. Jessica Klement is a licensed psychologist with advanced training in EMDR, EMDR 2.0, and integrating EMDR with Internal Family Systems therapy.
Her approach is active, compassionate, and individualized. She works with adults and adolescents experiencing trauma, anxiety, perfectionism, chronic medical conditions, pain, sleep difficulties, and persistent patterns that have not shifted through insight alone.
EMDR is not delivered as a rigid protocol disconnected from the rest of your life. Dr. Klement considers your history, current environment, relationships, physical health, internal resources, values, and readiness when developing a treatment plan.
In-person in Dallas + Online
Waitlist for new individual clients in 2027
Integrating EMDR and Internal Family Systems
Sometimes one part of you wants to process an experience while another part feels afraid, numb, skeptical, or determined to keep the memory contained.
Rather than viewing that resistance as a problem, an EMDR-IFS approach helps us understand what those protective responses are trying to accomplish. We can work with them respectfully, build internal trust, and determine what is needed before moving forward.
This integration can be especially helpful for clients with complex trauma, dissociation, conflicting feelings about treatment, or a history of becoming overwhelmed in therapy.
The goal is not to force processing. It is to help your system feel sufficiently safe and supported for meaningful work to occur.
Read more about IFS here.
What to Expect From EMDR Therapy
EMDR is a structured process, but treatment is individualized to your history, goals, readiness, and current circumstances. Beginning EMDR does not mean that you will immediately process your most painful memory.
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Understanding What Brings You to Therapy
We begin by discussing your current concerns, relevant history, treatment goals, and what you hope will feel different. You do not need to disclose every detail of a traumatic experience during the initial appointment.
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Preparation and Resourcing
Before reprocessing, we develop strategies for staying grounded, regulating distress, and returning attention to the present. The amount of preparation needed varies from person to person.
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Identifying a Target
An EMDR target may include a specific memory, disturbing image, body sensation, current trigger, recurring nightmare, or negative belief connected to an earlier experience. We will collaboratively determine where to begin.
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Reprocessing
During reprocessing, you briefly notice aspects of the target while engaging in bilateral stimulation. You may notice thoughts, emotions, images, memories, or physical sensations changing as the process unfolds.
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Integration
We monitor changes in distress, body responses, and beliefs while connecting the work to your daily life. Some clients use EMDR as one part of ongoing therapy, while others pursue a more focused course of treatment.
You remain awake, aware, and in control throughout EMDR. You can ask questions, provide feedback, pause, or stop at any time.
FAQs
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EMDR is not automatically the best starting point for every client.
More preparation or a different treatment approach may be appropriate when someone is experiencing significant instability, active safety concerns, severe dissociation, unmanaged substance use, or circumstances that make emotional processing difficult to contain safely.
A thoughtful EMDR assessment considers not only whether you have experienced trauma, but also your current stability, coping resources, environment, support, and ability to remain connected to the present.
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Online EMDR follows the same overall treatment framework as in-person care. Bilateral stimulation can be provided through guided eye movements, alternating sounds, tapping, or secure online tools.
Online treatment is not the best fit for every person or circumstance, so we will consider privacy, safety, dissociation, technological reliability, and your ability to remain grounded when deciding whether virtual EMDR is appropriate. Some clients appreciate being in their own environment, while others prefer the separation and structure of coming into an office.
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No. EMDR does not require you to provide a detailed verbal account of everything that happened.
Your therapist needs enough information to understand the concern, assess safety, and guide treatment, but it is possible to process an experience without sharing every detail aloud.
EMDR 2.0 also includes a “Blind to Therapist” protocol that allows you to reprocess an experience without disclosing the details of the event. This can be helpful when an experience feels too private, shameful, painful, or difficult to describe aloud.
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Potentially. EMDR may help when current anxiety is strongly connected to earlier distressing experiences, conditioned fear, or persistent negative beliefs.
Other concerns may respond better to CBT, exposure therapy, ACT, medication, or an integrated treatment plan. The consultation and initial evaluation help determine which approach best fits the problem.
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Both approaches can reduce distress connected to feared memories or situations, but they use different procedures.
Exposure therapy generally involves intentionally and repeatedly approaching feared thoughts, sensations, memories, or situations so that new learning can occur. EMDR combines brief attention to distressing material with bilateral stimulation within a structured reprocessing protocol.
The approaches can be complementary. EMDR may also help some clients process experiences or beliefs that make it difficult to engage fully in exposure work.
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Dissociation is an important clinical consideration, not a failure on your part.
Treatment may involve additional assessment, grounding, parts work, and preparation before attempting reprocessing. EMDR can be modified and paced carefully, but there are also circumstances in which another approach should come first.
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No. EMDR does not erase memories.
The aim is for the memory to become less emotionally and physically activating, allowing you to remember what happened without feeling as though you are being pulled back into it.
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EMDR does not require you to relive the experience in detail or describe everything that happened. You will briefly bring aspects of the memory to mind, so emotions, thoughts, or physical sensations may arise. At the same time, you remain oriented to the present and aware that the experience is not happening now.
We will prepare before beginning reprocessing, adjust the pace to your needs, and pause whenever necessary. You remain in control throughout the process.
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Yes. EMDR is not hypnosis. You remain awake, aware, and able to communicate with your therapist throughout the session.
You can pause or stop at any time, choose how much information you share, and provide feedback about what you are experiencing. Your therapist guides the process, but you remain in control of your participation.
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There is no set number of EMDR sessions. The length of treatment depends on your goals, the complexity of the experiences you want to address, your current circumstances, and how much preparation is needed before reprocessing.
A single, clearly defined experience may require fewer sessions than repeated, relational, or developmental trauma. Some clients use EMDR as one part of ongoing therapy, while others complete a more focused course of treatment. We will regularly evaluate your progress and adjust the treatment plan as needed.
Take the Next Step
You do not have to know whether EMDR is the right treatment before contacting us.
During a free 15-minute consultation, we can discuss what you are experiencing, answer questions about EMDR, and determine whether an initial evaluation at Tella Psychology would be an appropriate next step.