EMDR Therapy in Temecula.
Some things don't resolve by talking about them again. EMDR works on the memory itself — so the thing that keeps hijacking your present can finally sit in the past, where it belongs.
What EMDR actually is
Most therapy asks you to talk about what happened. EMDR asks your brain to finish processing it.
When something overwhelming happens, the memory can get stored raw — images, sounds, body sensations, and the belief you formed about yourself in that moment — without ever being filed away as over. That's why a smell, a tone of voice, or a certain kind of silence can drop you straight back into it years later. You're not being dramatic. The memory was never fully digested.
EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — uses bilateral stimulation, usually guided eye movements, while you hold the memory lightly in mind. It gives the brain the conditions it needs to reprocess the experience and store it properly. The memory doesn't disappear. It stops running the show.
What it's like in the room
- 01History and planning. We map what we're working on, and what we're deliberately not working on yet.
- 02Stabilization and resourcing. Before we go anywhere near the hard material, we build the internal footing to handle it. For a lot of people, this is the part that already changes things.
- 03Processing. We work the target memory at a pace your nervous system can actually use.
- 04Integration. We consolidate what shifted, and check that it holds.
You stay in control the entire time. You do not have to narrate the memory in detail. You can stop.
Who this is for
- Adults carrying relational trauma or developmental wounding — the slow kind, not only the single-incident kind
- Helping professionals and first responders who are fine at work and not fine at home
- People who have already talked about it in therapy and still feel it in their body
- People in recovery who keep bumping into the thing underneath the behaviour
How I work with it
I'm Katelin Hanhart, LCSW. I've been in practice for 13 years, and I'm trained in EMDR. I use it as one part of an integrative approach — alongside CBT, DBT, parts work, somatic approaches and compassion-focused therapy — rather than as a standalone protocol. Which of those we draw on depends on what your system actually needs, not on what I happen to prefer.
For clients who want to move something in one focused block rather than spread it across many weekly hours, see EMDR Intensives.
Common questions.
Is EMDR hypnosis?
No. You're awake, aware and in control the whole time, and you can stop at any point.
Do I have to describe what happened in detail?
No. EMDR is one of the few approaches where you don't have to narrate the memory out loud in order to process it.
How many sessions does EMDR take?
It depends on how much is stored and how long it's been there. Single-incident trauma can move in a handful of sessions. Relational and developmental trauma takes longer. We'll talk honestly about the likely arc before we start.
Does EMDR work over telehealth?
Yes. It's well established online, and I deliver it that way across California and New Jersey.
Will it bring up more than I can handle?
That's what the stabilization phase is for. We don't go near the hard material until you have the footing to hold it. Pacing is the work, not an obstacle to it.