EMDR therapy for Anxious, Burnout Adults |Connecticut
High-functioning on the outside.
Running on empty on the inside.
Depth-oriented EMDR therapy for adults who are self-aware, capable, and quietly exhausted by how much it takes to hold it all together.
You know this story too well.
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You may have grown up as the one who read the room. The one who knew, before anyone said a word, whether the temperature was safe. Maybe that meant managing a parent's moods, keeping the peace between people who should have been protecting you, or learning to make yourself smaller so someone else could feel bigger. Maybe you earned love by being helpful, capable, and easy. Maybe you got the message, not all at once but slowly, that your needs were secondary, inconvenient, or too much.
You learned to manage outward and push through inward.
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Racing thoughts at 2 AM about conversations you had three days ago. Replaying emails before you send them. Analyzing every decision until you're paralyzed by the options.
You've gotten very good at thinking your way toward feeling better. It works, until it doesn't, and then the thoughts just move faster.
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From the outside, your life looks pretty good. You check all the boxes, meet every deadline, show up for everyone. But inside, you're running on empty, held together by coffee, sheer willpower and an endless to-do list.
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The one who remembers birthdays, plans gatherings, and makes sure everyone else is okay, often at the cost of your own peace. Setting boundaries feels impossible when you're terrified of disappointing people.
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Tension lives in your jaw, your shoulders, your chest. You can't seem to relax because your brain is always scanning for the next thing that needs fixing, managing, or perfecting.
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You know meditation is good for you, but your mind won't quiet down long enough to do it. You've read the self-help books, tried the apps, maybe even done therapy before but you're still stuck in the same patterns, still carrying the same weight.
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You feel like you're managing life instead of actually living it. The disconnect between your accomplishments and feeling accomplished is exhausting. You want to trust yourself again, to feel calm in your own head, to stop spending so much energy just trying to stay afloat.
Your nervous system wasn't wrong. It was working with what it had.
If you identify with being anxious, leaning towards perfectionism or people pleasing patterns, these are all not character flaws. They're strategies your nervous system developed because at some point, staying vigilant, staying small, staying perfect or being the “peacemaker” meant staying safe and connected to those around you.
That made sense then. Your system was doing exactly what it needed to do to take care of you..
What we're working with now isn't a broken version of you. It's a version of you that learned to survive in conditions that required a lot. And those same strategies, the ones that got you here, are now costing more than they're returning.
That's not a personal failing. That's a nervous system that hasn't gotten the update yet.
The gap you've been feeling.
You understand what's happening. You can name the patterns. You know where they came from.
But knowing hasn't been enough to shift them, because the information lives in your head, and the patterns live in your body.
This is where EMDR and parts work come in. Not as a replacement for the insight you've already built, but as a way to bring your nervous system into the conversation. We work with what's stored underneath the thinking, the places where understanding alone hasn't been able to reach. Gently, and at a pace your system can tolerate.
When we do this work, here's what starts to shift:
The 2am loops get quieter. Not because you've talked yourself out of them, but because the experiences underneath them have less charge. You stop replaying the email you sent three days ago because your nervous system has stopped treating it like a threat.
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You still care about doing things well. You still show up for the people you love. But it stops costing everything. The vigilance softens. The bracing eases. There's more of you left over at the end of the day.
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Boundaries start to come from a different place. Less fear of what happens if you disappoint someone, more clarity about what you actually need. The inner critic doesn't disappear, but it gets quieter and you get better at knowing whose voice it actually is.
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The jaw unclenches more often. The shoulders drop without you having to remind them. Rest starts to feel like something you're allowed, not something you have to earn first.
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How we work together:
The format of our work is flexible because anxiety and burnout don't follow a fixed schedule, and neither should therapy. For some people that's a steady weekly rhythm. For others it's longer, less frequent sessions that give the nervous system enough time to actually settle and process.
We figure that out together after we've had a chance to map the work.
When you're ready, I'm here.
Questions are welcome anytime.
Frequently Asked Questions:
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While talk therapy helps you understand your patterns, EMDR helps your brain and body actually release what's driving them. Instead of just knowing why you're anxious, you can experience relief from the underlying triggers and stuck emotions.
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Not at all. EMDR is highly effective for what we call "little t" traumas: experiences like criticism, rejection, feeling unseen, or growing up in high-pressure environments. These seemingly smaller experiences can create lasting patterns of anxiety and self-doubt.
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I'm trained in techniques to help you stay grounded and safe throughout the work. We build resources first, and you always have choice and control over the pace of our sessions.
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EMDR isn't about turning off your analytical mind as that's part of what makes you smart and capable! Instead, it helps quiet the anxious, repetitive loops so you can use your thinking mind productively rather than having it work against you.
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That's completely normal. Often it's a collection of experiences like growing up in a high-pressure family, early messages about needing to be perfect, or even ongoing stress that's accumulated over time. EMDR can work with patterns and themes, not just single events.
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This is such a common fear! Your drive and caring nature are core parts of who you are. The goal isn't to make you care less, it's to help you achieve and care for others from a place of choice and confidence rather than fear and compulsion.