Trauma Counseling in Minneapolis Using EMDR
A Method That Helps Your Brain Process What’s Stuck
Trauma often gets “stuck” in the brain and body, keeping old emotions and reactions alive.
My approach combines EMDR therapy with trauma-informed techniques like Parts Work (IFS) and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT). EMDR helps your brain safely reprocess memories, allowing them to feel like part of your past rather than a present threat.
This is why therapy can actually help — it gives your brain the chance to do what it wasn’t able to do on its own.
How This Method Works
EMDR allows you to focus briefly on a memory while following guided eye movements, taps, or sounds. This dual focus is thought to mimic the brain’s natural processing during REM sleep.
Combined with trauma-informed strategies like IFS and EFT, this approach:
Supports emotional regulation
Helps your brain safely reprocess difficult memories without fully reliving it
Provides a way to make sense of experiences that have felt overwhelming
Sessions That Are Safe, Structured, And Supportive
The goal isn’t to make you relive your trauma. Instead, sessions are designed to help you feel safe while exploring difficult memories. Here’s what a session with me typically looks like:
Check-in and grounding: We start by talking about your current state and using techniques to help you feel centered.
Identifying targets: We focus on specific memories, sensations, or emotions that feel “stuck.”
EMDR reprocessing: You briefly focus on the memory while following guided eye movements, taps, or sounds. This helps your brain begin integrating the memory safely.
Integration and reflection: We talk about what you noticed in your thoughts, feelings, or body sensations.
Closing and coping strategies: Each session ends with grounding and skills to help you feel stable until the next session.
The sessions are paced to your comfort level. You remain in control throughout, and the process allows your brain and body to work with memories safely.
An Approach That Sees You With Bradley Barker, LPCC
I understand how challenging it can be when past experiences continue to affect your life or when therapy hasn’t felt helpful before.
I am trained in EMDR, Gottman Method Couples Therapy, and Relational Life Therapy, and I continue consultation in EFT. My goal is to provide a space where you feel seen, heard, and supported as you work with memories that have been difficult to process.
Learn More About EMDR Therapy for Trauma
This method can be used for people experiencing PTSD, childhood trauma, anxiety, depression, or emotional distress from unprocessed life events.