EMDR Therapy in Vancouver

My psychology practice, located in Vancouver, BC has helped many people. I have completed thousands of EMDR Therapy sessions with clients, and I continue to be amazed by the results. I have the privilege of witnessing my clients heal from difficult and emotionally painful experiences and negative self-beliefs.

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR Therapy, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is an evidence-based psychotherapy. EMDR Therapy helps people process and heal from traumatic or disturbing life experiences, including everyday bad experiences. EMDR Therapy is a comprehensive and integrative psychotherapy that contains elements of many effective psychotherapies including cognitive-behavioral, interpersonal, experiential, psychodynamic and body-centered therapies. Since its development by Francine Shapiro, EMDR Therapy has helped millions of people of all ages, in over 130 countries, to relieve many types of psychological trauma and stress.

How EMDR Works

I have successfully used EMDR therapy with clients dealing with most issues from trauma, anxiety, grief to self-esteem. I have had the privilege of witnessing my clients heal from emotionally painful experiences. EMDR helps release ineffective and self-defeating behaviours and beliefs and develop adaptive self-images and ways of being in the world. EMDR therapy helps the brain process painful, disturbing memories and negative beliefs and allows normal healing to resume.

EMDR Therapy Can Work Quickly

Many people believe that healing from severe emotional pain or trauma takes years. EMDR Therapy often shows that recovery can happen more quickly. Our bodies and minds are capable of healing from psychological trauma and distress much the same way the body recovers from a physical injury or trauma.

Imagine getting a cut on your hand; your body immediately begins repairing the wound. If it continues to be irritated, the wound may become inflamed and painful. Once the irritation is removed, healing resumes naturally. Treating trauma with EMDR Therapy works in a similar way. Our brain’s information processing system is designed to move us towards mental health. The impact of a disturbing experience or traumatic memories can disrupt this system. The emotional injury can remain raw and unresolved. This can lead to flashbacks and intense emotional suffering, much like a wound that never closes.

Through EMDR’s protocols we help remove these mental, emotional and somatic blockages. This allows the brain and body to reprocess the distressing memory in a healthier way, reducing its emotional charge. As the block clears, the brain’s natural healing process takes over. The clearing and healing often leads to significant relief in less time than expected. For many of my clients they will say it’s “just a memory now” with no emotional charge.

As stated in the EMDR Europe website, “This comprehensive approach not only alleviates symptoms but fundamentally alters how traumatic/disturbing memories are held in the brain, fostering lasting mental health improvements.” EMDR therapy “activates natural healing processes and promotes psychological stability and resilience.”

Evidence Based Effective Therapy

More than 30 well-controlled studies have confirmed the effectiveness of EMDR Therapy. Recognized by many respected national and international organizations as a proven treatment for trauma and many other psychological issues, such as:

• Canadian Psychological Association
• American Psychiatric Association
• American Psychological Association
• International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies
• Veteran Affairs Canada
• National Alliance on Mental Illness
• Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
• U.K. National Institute for Health and Care Excellence
• U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs / Dept. of Defense
• The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews
• World Health Organization

In addition to EMDR Therapy being effective for healing from trauma it is also effective with “everyday” memories and negative beliefs. Memories and beliefs that fuel low self-esteem, feelings of helplessness, and many of the issues that bring clients to therapy.

Today, over 70,000 trained clinicians in 130 countries are trained in EMDR therapy. Millions of people have experienced the lasting results over the past three decades.

I, Dr. Joanne MacKinnon, took my first EMDR training in 1995 and became a Certified EMDR Therapist in 2002. I trained extensively with Maureen Kitchur in the Strategic Developmental Model for EMDR and I regularly attend conferences and advanced trainings in EMDR Therapy.

What Happens in an EMDR Therapy Session

The therapist uses eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation to help the client process distressing memories, negative beliefs, emotions and/or body sensations. It starts with identifying which memory, negative belief, emotion and/or body sensation to address first. Once identified, the therapist asks the client to focus on a specific aspect of the memory, the negative belief, the emotion and body sensation.

As the memory (and/or belief, emotion and body sensation) are processed, the emotional intensity generally begins to change and the meaning of the painful experience shifts on a deep emotional level. For example, a client who experienced sexual assault and emotional abuse by her ex went from feeling shame and believing she was damaged, to “it wasn’t my fault, he was shameful, not me.” This person had not dated in 5 years and within two weeks after the session started dating again.

Unlike traditional talk therapy, these insights do not come from the therapist’s interpretation. The insights come from the client’s own accelerated emotional and cognitive processing. As a result, clients often leave EMDR therapy feeling strengthened by the experiences that once overwhelmed them.

Emotional wounds heal and transform. Over time, clients’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours reflect greater emotional health and resilience. This occurs without the need to speak about the trauma in detail or complete homework assignments common in other therapies. I, however, do give one homework assignment after the first session.

In Clients’ Own Words

Garth Mullins (2025) Crackdown: Surviving and Resisting The War On Drugs: A Memoir. Penguin Random House Canada Limited.

“At our next session, Dr. Joanne diagnosed me with post-traumatic stress disorder. I was surprised. I thought PTSD was for soldiers, firefighters and residential school survivors.” (p. 169)

“You don’t have to relive the events in detail,” the doctor said. “You can heal from bad experiences or traumatic experiences so they become just memories without an emotional charge.” (p. 170)

“Leaving the doctor’s office, I felt light-headed and dizzy. I stumbled down the corridor, leaning on the walls for support. The tension I’d been holding in my body for decades, in my shoulders, neck and back, was suddenly gone. I wasn’t wincing with shame or self-hate. I felt safe, calm and at peace. Lisa was there to pick me up. “Let’s go home,” she said.”

After the appointment I slept for twenty hours straight. Stumbles lay on me, purring like the EMDR machine. I wondered about Stumbles’ life before I adopted her from the shelter. Did she have trauma too? I looked at Lisa. This was my family and we would all heal together. Later that week I decided to ask Lisa to marry me. (pp. 171–172)

Lorimer Shenher (2015). That Lonely Section of Hell: The Botched Investigation of a Serial Killer Who Almost Got Away. Greystone Books.

“Dr. MacKinnon and I began my treatment while I continued working as an intelligence officer with the VPD, analyzing and assessing threats in the public domain of the City of Vancouver. She helped me manage my ongoing frustration and anxiety as the final months of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry degenerated into farce and spectacle, complete with internal accusations of sexual harassment in the commission’s own office, cries of conspiracy from the lawyers for the victims’ families and Downtown Eastside interests, resignations, and the provincial government’s choking off of hearing time and public funds to properly conduct the inquiry. Using EMDR, she helped me to loosen the grip of these old and newly inflicted traumas held on my body and mind. In those months, Dr. MacKinnon kept me from slipping deeper into the pit. It was no mean feat.” (pp. 324–325)

“Dr. MacKinnon and I began to use EMDR to unravel the events of the investigation that bothered me the most: the women who went missing after we’d received the Ellingsen tip, the POI 390 investigation, my testimony at the inquiry, my grief over the murdered and missing women, the loss of my good health, and the stalling of my career in law enforcement. Slowly, as we worked through each event step by step, I became able to write about them, bit by bit, an hour or two a week. I could do it without sinking into a pit of depression or yelling at everyone around me. I began to believe I might publish this book.” (p. 337)