Therapy

All three work with the nervous system rather than only with language. All three are used for trauma, but also for anxiety, panic, phobias, grief and performance blocks. And all three are available here, which is not true of most practices in the Twin Ports.

The premise is that the mind, like the body, has a natural capacity to heal — and that some experiences get stuck partway through processing, staying vivid and physically charged years later. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, usually guided eye movements, while you hold the memory in mind. The memory does not disappear. What changes is the charge attached to it: clients often describe it afterwards as something that happened, rather than something that is still happening.

It is one of the most heavily researched trauma treatments available and is recommended in international treatment guidelines. It also does not require you to narrate the event in detail, which is why it suits people for whom talking about it is the barrier.

Best suited to: PTSD and single-incident trauma, childhood trauma, anxiety, panic disorder, phobias, grief.

Trained here: Connie Rabideaux, MSW, LICSW · Aurora Abbott, MS, LPCC.

ART developed out of EMDR and shares its foundations, but uses smooth-pursuit eye movements and a technique called memory reconsolidation — in effect, keeping the facts of a memory while changing the distressing images attached to it. It is protocol-driven and often works in noticeably fewer sessions than open-ended trauma therapy, which matters if cost or time is a constraint.

Best suited to: PTSD, depression, anxiety, phobias, grief, sleep disturbance.

Trained here: Miranda Stenstrup, MSW, LICSW.

Discovered by Dr David Grand in 2003, Brainspotting rests on the observation that where you look affects how you feel. Working together, you and your therapist locate an eye position that connects to the material you are working on, then hold it while your brain does the processing — largely without words, and largely in the subcortical brain, below the level conscious thought reaches.

It tends to suit people who feel something is there but cannot articulate it, and people for whom talk therapy has plateaued.

Best suited to: trauma held in the body, dissociation, chronic pain with a psychological component, creative and performance blocks, emotional material that resists verbalising.

Trained here: Dave Lindlbauer, MS Ed., LPCC.

You do not need to decide this before you call. Choosing between them depends on what you are working on, how you process, how much time you have and who you connect with — and that is a conversation for the first session or two, not for a website. If you already know you want one specifically, ask for it by name when you book and we will match you to the clinician trained in it.

All three approaches can be delivered effectively over video, using on-screen bilateral stimulation or self-administered tapping. If you are on the Iron Range, up the North Shore, or anywhere else in Minnesota where this kind of training is hard to find locally, that is worth knowing.

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