Mid-Atlantic Psychotherapy
EMDR Therapy
Evidence-based EMDR to help you move beyond trauma, calm your nervous system, and reconnect with the life in front of you. Now offered in person in Vienna, VA, with virtual EMDR available across Virginia.
Find relief from physical & physiological trauma symptoms
Understand, free & befriend your nervous system
Learn to Make deliberate choices that align with your values
"I’ve talked through this more times than I can count, but my body still won’t relax."
You’ve done the work to understand yourself. You know your patterns, where they come from, and how to explain them to anyone who asks. Part of you still believes that if you just do a little more, the relief will come, the relationships will feel closer, and you’ll finally rest, but every time you cross something off, the list grows back. And there’s a part of you that sits with the thought that what you went through doesn’t quite count, that the life you have now should have made it disappear.
Through EMDR therapy, we help your body RE-process what your mind has been holding on to, so the calm you know you should feel can finally settle in.
EMDR Therapy Online Across Virginia
Is EMDR Therapy The Right Fit For Me?
EMDR works differently from most therapy approaches you may have tried. Rather than relying on insight and conversation alone, EMDR uses an eight-phase, evidence-based process that helps your brain reprocess experiences that have stayed stuck. It’s particularly effective when stress, anxiety, depression, burnout, or trauma have settled into your body and started showing up as physiological or physical symptoms.
Whether you’re a high achiever who has never quite felt safe enough to slow down, a parent struggling to hold the weight of family and work at the same time, or someone who has spent years brushing off their own history because ‘other people had it worse,’ EMDR offers a way to address what your nervous system has been holding onto, often outside of conscious awareness.
EMDR therapy can help when the weight of what you carry shows up as:
- Irritability and a short fuse over small frustrations
- Anxious rumination, heart palpitations, or a constant on-edge feeling
- Sleep that never feels restful, no matter how many hours you log
- Boundaries that feel impossible to hold without guilt
- Relationships that feel close in name but distant in practice
- A pull toward overproduction that no amount of doing seems to ease
- Self-criticism and negative self-beliefs that loop on repeat
- A sense of being stuck, even after years of working on yourself
EMDR Therapy Online Across Virginia
5 Ways EMDR Therapy Can Help You Move Forward
EMDR can help:
Reach What Talk Therapy Hasn't Been Able To
EMDR therapy doesn’t ask you to keep explaining your story. It uses dual focus of attention and bilateral stimulation, things like guided eye movements, tactile pulsers, or alternating audio tones, to help your brain reprocess experiences that have stayed stuck. For clients who have spent years in talk therapy and felt the same patterns repeat, this is often the shift that finally lands.
Calm A Nervous System That's Been Running On High
When your body has been on alert for years, ordinary moments can trigger an outsized response. EMDR helps your nervous system update its sense of safety, so you stop reacting from old wiring. Over time, you can become more grounded in your body, more present in your day, and more able to rest without guilt.
Loosen The Grip Of Perfectionism & Burnout
Many of our EMDR clients learned, somewhere along the way, that perfection equals safety and productivity equals worth. EMDR therapy helps surface the experiences that taught those equations, so the pull toward overachieving softens, and you can begin making decisions that align with your values.
Validate Your Own History Without Comparison
A common belief we hear: “My experience doesn’t really count because someone else had it harder.” EMDR works regardless of whether your history fits a textbook definition of trauma. Your nervous system holds what it holds, and EMDR honors your story on its own terms.
Move From Reacting To Responding
Lasting change shows up in the small moments, like when you spend Saturday afternoon enjoying your kid’s soccer game without checking your work emails. EMDR therapy supports the shift from automatic reaction to deliberate response, so your life starts to feel more like yours.
Your free 20 minute consultation is waiting for you!
Meet us in person at our Vienna, VA office near Tysons Corner, or connect virtually from anywhere in Virginia. Book online or contact us.
About Us
Why Work With
Mid-Atlantic Psychotherapy
We believe that everyone deserves to find some calm amidst life’s challenges.
When you’re struggling with holding it all together, prioritizing everyone else’s needs over your own, or just trying to understand how to make life a little easier, it can be hard to know what you need or where to start. There are so many competing priorities that you feel overwhelmed and alone in a life that isn’t giving you enough connection, acknowledgement, or ease. We want to help you create a life that feels balanced, successful, and aligned with your core values.
At Mid-Atlantic Psychotherapy, our clinicians help you align your behaviors and decisions with your core values. You’ll have a greater sense of confidence and greater sense of ease moving through your day.
Our goal is for you to leave therapy feeling greater mental clarity to make deliberate decisions that bring happiness to your life.
With over 40 years of combined experience, our therapy practice was built on the philosophy that no one should have to go through the hardships of life alone and that with the right help, you can quiet the chaos of day-to-day life, prioritize your mental health, and live a life with greater ease and satisfaction. We see clients in person at our Vienna, VA office in Fairfax County and virtually throughout Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
Christina Moynihan
MSW, LICSW
Psychotherapist & Founder
Our practice is committed to:
Compassion
We genuinely care about your mental wellness and aim to help you improve your life and relationships through compassionate care.
Inclusion
We create a welcoming and inclusive environment where you feel heard, understood, and respected, allowing you to fully participate in your journey.
Sincerity
We are committed to creating a safe space where you can openly express your true feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and joys, and where you can expect your provider to be genuine, honest, and truthful.
Enthusiasm
We approach your mental wellness journey with genuine excitement and passion, fuelled by the belief in your potential for growth and transformation.
Empowerment
We see your strength and resilience and empower you to take action that focuses on reaching your goals and living a life you love.
Our Team
Match With An EMDR Psychotherapist
Meet our team of therapists who specialize in EMDR. Our therapists see clients in person at our Vienna, VA office in Fairfax County and virtually throughout Virginia.
Our APPROACH
The 8 Phases of EMDR Therapy
EMDR follows a structured, evidence-based protocol that unfolds across eight phases. Your clinician will guide you through each one at a pace that respects your nervous system’s readiness.
1. Client History
We learn your story, your goals, and the experiences shaping what brought you in. Together, you build a clear map of where to begin.
2. Preparation
Before any deeper work, you’ll build a foundation of grounding skills and resourcing techniques, so you have reliable tools to regulate your nervous system whenever you need them.
3. Assessment
You and your clinician identify the specific memory, belief, or sensation to target in a given session, along with the positive belief you’d like to move toward.
4. Desensitization
Using bilateral stimulation through eye movements, taps, or tones, your brain begins to reprocess the target. Distress softens as the experience shifts in how it’s stored.
5. Installation
The new, adaptive belief about yourself gets strengthened, so it begins to feel as true as the old belief once did.
6. Body Scan
Together, you check in with your body to see whether any residual tension or sensation remains, so the work is integrated physically as well as cognitively.
7. Closure
Every session ends with grounding and stabilization, so you leave feeling steady, no matter how deep the session went.
8. Reevaluation
At the start of each new session, your clinician checks in on how the work has settled, what’s changed, and where to go next.
We help your body naturally heal negative experiences it has been holding onto, ensuring you have the steadiness, presence, and self-trust to show up as yourself in the life you've built.
Questions About EMDR Therapy
What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based psychotherapy originally developed for PTSD, with well-documented outcomes for anxiety, depression, burnout, and a range of other mental health concerns. It’s built on the Adaptive Information Processing model, which holds that much of ongoing emotional distress comes from experiences your brain didn’t fully process at the time. EMDR uses an eight-phase, three-pronged approach (addressing past experiences, current triggers, and future challenges) to help your brain do what it couldn’t do then. The result is often reduced distress, a softer relationship with yourself, and relief from physical symptoms you didn’t realize were connected.
How is EMDR therapy different from traditional talk therapy?
Talk therapy relies heavily on insight, on understanding why you feel the way you do. That work is valuable, and many of our clients come to EMDR after years of it. The difference with EMDR is that it works at a neurological level. Using dual focus of attention and bilateral stimulation, EMDR helps your brain reprocess experiences that have been stored in a way that keeps producing distress. Therapist intervention is kept to the minimum needed for the work to continue, which means your innate capacity to heal takes the lead.
How will I know if EMDR therapy is right for me?
That’s a decision you and your clinician make together. During the first phase of EMDR (Client History), your clinician gathers a full clinical picture, looks at what you’re bringing in, and assesses whether EMDR is the right fit and whether the timing is right. You’ll always have the autonomy to pause or stop the process at your discretion. It’s careful, intentional work, and your clinician is trained to keep you stable throughout.
What does in-person EMDR therapy look like at your Northern Virginia office?
In-person EMDR sessions take place at our office in Vienna, VA, located in Fairfax County near Tysons Corner. Many clients prefer in-person sessions for EMDR because of the embodied nature of the work; being in the same physical space as your clinician can support a deeper sense of safety, and bilateral stimulation can be delivered through guided eye movements, light bars, or tactile pulsers. If you’re in Fairfax County or surrounding Northern Virginia and you’re drawn to in-person EMDR, our Vienna office is set up for it.
Can I do EMDR therapy virtually?
Yes. Virtual EMDR has strong evidence behind it, and for many clients it’s the more accessible option. Some phases of virtual EMDR feel like any other video session, with you and your clinician talking through what’s coming up. For the bilateral stimulation component, your clinician will work with you to find what fits best, including following a moving graphic on screen, listening to alternating audio tones through headphones, or self-administered tapping. Research has shown that telehealth EMDR can be as effective as in-person therapy for reducing PTSD symptoms, making it a strong option for clients across Virginia who prefer or need remote care.
How long does EMDR therapy take?
There isn’t a fixed number of sessions, since the answer depends on what you’re bringing in and what you’re hoping to shift. For a single, contained experience, some clients notice meaningful change within several sessions. For more layered histories, the work tends to unfold over a longer arc. Your clinician will check in with you throughout, so the length of treatment is something the two of you decide together as you go.
How long does EMDR therapy work for?
For most clients, the changes that come out of EMDR tend to hold because the work happens at the level of how experiences are stored in your brain and nervous system, not just in how you think about them. Some clients return later for a tune-up during a major life transition or to work on a new area, but the relief from what you’ve already processed tends to stay. EMDR doesn’t undo your history; it changes the charge it carries.
Are there any side effects of EMDR therapy?
EMDR isn’t medication, so the experience is different from typical side effects. That said, the work can stir things up. After sessions, some people feel emotionally tender, more tired than usual, or notice vivid dreams as their brain keeps processing in the background. These responses are part of how EMDR works, and your clinician will help you stay resourced throughout, so you have what you need to move through them.
What happens after an EMDR therapy session?
Most clients leave feeling lighter, though some feel quieter or more tender for a day or two as their brain keeps integrating in the background. You might notice fresh insights, vivid dreams, or shifts in how something from your past lands when you think about it now. Your clinician will give you grounding tools to use between sessions, and the closure phase of every session is designed to make sure you leave feeling steady, no matter how deep the work went.
Will I be in control during EMDR therapy?
Yes, completely. EMDR is built around your autonomy, which means you can pause, slow down, or stop at any point in the process, no questions asked. Your clinician moves at the pace you set, not the other way around. For clients who’ve spent a long time feeling like their nervous system is in charge, this matters; the work itself is also practice in trusting your own signals.
Mid-Atlantic Psychotherapy
How To Get Started
Whether you prefer meeting in person at our Vienna, VA office in Fairfax County or connecting virtually from home, getting started is simple. Book your session online, complete your intake forms electronically, and you are on your way.
Schedule your intake appointment or a free 20-minute consultation! You can book online using the button below, submit a message via our contact form, or call us. Free consultations are optional.
Have questions? Call 571-771-1989 and you can speak to one of our administrative staff. They are happy to help answer any questions or match you with a therapist.
Send Us A Message!
EMDR Therapy Online Across Virginia
The Relief EMDR Therapy Can Bring
Healing with EMDR is shaped by your unique history and the changes you’re ready to make. You and your clinician will set the pace together, one that respects your nervous system’s readiness while moving you toward real, lasting change.
With EMDR, you may notice:
- Relief from lingering physical & physiological symptoms
- A more regulated nervous system & less reactivity to everyday stress
- Greater connection to your physical body
- The agency to respond thoughtfully instead of reacting on autopilot
- The ability to set boundaries that protect and nurture you
- More confidence showing up as yourself, in your relationships and your work
- Deeper, more meaningful connections with the people who matter to you
Mid-Atlantic Psychotherapy
Helping you process and heal from what your nervous system has held onto for too long.