Healing Trauma with EMDR in Los Angeles, CA
Evidence-Based · LGBTQ-Affirming · Psychodynamic + Narrative Integration · In-Person & Online
Something from your past keeps showing up in your present. Maybe it’s a specific memory that still hits with the full force of the original moment. Maybe it’s a hair-trigger response — the way certain situations send your nervous system into overdrive before your brain has even caught up with why. Or maybe it’s quieter than that: the accumulated weight of years of feeling wrong, different, unsafe, or not quite enough.
You’ve probably tried to address it. You may have talked about it extensively. You might understand it perfectly well. And somehow — somehow — the understanding hasn’t changed the way it still lives in your body.
EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — is one of the most rigorously researched and genuinely transformative therapeutic approaches available for trauma healing. In the hands of a skilled therapist who deeply understands your specific history and identity, it can change what has felt permanently written into you. David Strah, M.A., LMFT brings to this work not only clinical training in EMDR, but a psychodynamic depth of understanding and deeply personal lived experience in LGBTQ+ identity — a combination that is exceptionally rare in Los Angeles.
What Is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — is an evidence-based psychotherapy developed in the late 1980s by psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro. It is now recognized by the American Psychological Association (APA), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a first-line treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and trauma.
EMDR works on the principle that the brain has a natural capacity to heal from traumatic experience — similar to how the body heals physical injury — but that this natural processing can become blocked when trauma is too overwhelming. Traumatic memories get stored differently from ordinary memories. Instead of being filed away and integrated into your life narrative, they remain stuck in a raw, emotionally charged form: fully accessible to the senses and nervous system as though the event is still happening. The result is what trauma survivors know intimately — flashbacks, hypervigilance, intrusive thoughts, emotional flooding, and a body that keeps responding as though the threat is still present, long after it has passed.
EMDR uses a technique called bilateral stimulation — typically guided eye movements, but also rhythmic tapping or auditory tones — to engage both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously while the client briefly focuses on a distressing memory. This process mimics the neurological activity that occurs during REM sleep, the stage in which the brain naturally consolidates and integrates emotional experiences. Through repeated sets of bilateral stimulation, the emotional charge of traumatic memories is progressively reduced, the negative beliefs attached to those memories are replaced with more accurate and adaptive ones, and the memory is integrated into the client’s life story without continuing to hijack their present.
EMDR follows a structured eight-phase protocol. It begins with thorough history-taking and treatment planning, moves through careful preparation to build emotional regulation capacity, and then proceeds to active processing phases before closing with integration and ongoing review. The preparation phase is foundational and should never be rushed; a client who is insufficiently resourced before active processing begins will not benefit fully from the work.
At David Strah Therapy, EMDR is available in person at 321 N. Larchmont Boulevard, Suite 808, Los Angeles, CA 90004, and via secure telehealth for any client in California.
Is This What’s Been Happening for You?
Trauma doesn’t always announce itself as trauma. Sometimes it shows up as anxiety, as a hair-trigger response in situations that feel vaguely familiar, as shame that makes no rational sense, or as the persistent, low-level feeling that you are broken in a way other people simply are not. If any of the following sounds familiar, you’re in the right place.
Memories That Hijack the Present
A smell, a tone of voice, a situation that feels too much like something else — and suddenly you’re not here anymore. You’re back there. Your body doesn’t distinguish between the memory and what’s actually happening right now. The response is overwhelming, physical, and completely impossible to think your way out of.
You’ve Talked About It Extensively — and It Hasn’t Changed
You’re not someone who avoids their feelings. You’ve done real work: therapy, journaling, analysis, deep reflection. You understand what happened and why it affected you the way it did. And somehow that understanding hasn’t shifted the way it still lives in your body. Insight alone isn’t moving it. EMDR works at a different level — and for people who’ve hit this particular wall, it often works when nothing else has.
Your Nervous System Is Still Living in the Past
Hypervigilance in situations that are objectively safe. Startling easily. Flooding in conflict. Avoiding places, people, or situations that remind you of something — even at real cost to your life. This isn’t weakness or overreaction. It’s a nervous system that learned to protect you and genuinely doesn’t know the threat has passed. EMDR speaks directly to that.
Shame That Feels Like It’s Just Who You Are
The belief that you are fundamentally defective — wrong in your body, wrong in your identity, unlovable, or somehow responsible for what happened to you — doesn’t yield to logic. It lives deeper than that. It was installed by experience, and it needs to be addressed at that level. EMDR is one of the few approaches specifically designed to reach and reprocess the memories and experiences that put those beliefs there in the first place.
Identity-Based Wounds That Have Never Fully Healed
For LGBTQ+ people — gay men, queer individuals, bisexual and transgender people — a significant portion of what lives in the body as unprocessed pain is identity-based: the rejection, the messages absorbed before you had any defenses against them, the exhaustion of hiding, the violence or the threat of it, the conditional love, the coming-out experiences that didn’t go the way you’d hoped.
For LGBTQ+ people — gay men, queer individuals, bisexual and transgender people — a significant portion of what lives in the body as unprocessed pain is identity-based: the rejection, the messages absorbed before you had any defenses against them, the exhaustion of hiding, the violence or the threat of it, the conditional love, the coming-out experiences that didn’t go the way you’d hoped.
The 8 Phases of EMDR — What Actually Happens
EMDR is a structured process — and understanding what you’re walking into can make the difference between approaching it with openness and approaching it with dread. Here’s what each phase actually involves.
Phase 1 — History Taking and Treatment Planning
Before any processing begins, David takes real time to understand your full history: the experiences that brought you here, the traumas you’re aware of, the patterns you’ve noticed, and the goals you want to reach. This is not a brief intake form. It’s a thorough, collaborative exploration that shapes the precision and effectiveness of everything that follows.
Phase 2 — Preparation and Resourcing
This is one of the most critical and most frequently skipped phases of EMDR — and at David Strah Therapy, it is never skipped. Before any trauma processing begins, you are equipped with practical coping and emotional regulation tools: techniques for grounding yourself, managing distress between sessions, and creating an internal sense of safety. For clients with complex histories or deep identity-based wounds, this phase may extend over several sessions. That isn’t a slow start. That is what makes the subsequent healing safe, contained, and lasting.
Phase 3 — Assessment
David works with you to identify the specific memory to target, the negative belief currently attached to it (for example: “I am not safe,” “I am unlovable,” or “I am to blame”), the positive belief you’d prefer to hold about yourself, and the physical sensations associated with the memory. This careful mapping makes the processing that follows far more precise and effective.
Phase 4 — Desensitization
This is the active processing phase most people associate with EMDR. You hold the target memory in mind — along with the associated image, belief, and physical sensations — while engaging in sets of bilateral stimulation. After each set, you briefly report what came up: an emotion, a thought, a different memory, a physical sensation. David follows your process without directing it, trusting your brain to go where it needs to go. Over the course of the session, the emotional intensity of the memory measurably decreases.
Phase 5 — Installation
Once the emotional charge of the target memory has been reduced to a minimal level, this phase strengthens the positive belief identified in Phase 3 — installing it in place of the negative belief that trauma had written into you. This is where the cognitive and emotional shift that EMDR clients often describe as profound actually occurs.
Phase 6 — Body Scan
After installing the positive belief, David guides you through a brief scan of your body to identify any remaining physical tension, discomfort, or sensation associated with the target memory. Trauma is held in the body as well as the mind — and this phase ensures that the healing is genuinely complete, not just cognitive.
Phase 7 — Closure
Every EMDR session ends with a deliberate closing process that ensures you leave in a stable, grounded state — regardless of whether full processing was completed. EMDR can surface intense emotion, and leaving a session feeling flooded or destabilized is not an acceptable outcome. Closure protocols ensure you have the tools and grounding to transition back into your regular life after every single session.
Phase 8 — Reevaluation
At the beginning of each subsequent session, David reviews the work done previously, checks in on how you’ve been since your last appointment, and determines whether healing has been maintained and integrated. This phase also identifies whether additional target memories need to be addressed as the work continues.
How David’s Approach to EMDR Is Different
EMDR is a protocol — but a protocol delivered without clinical depth and genuine understanding of the person in the room is a less powerful instrument than it could be. What distinguishes David’s EMDR work is not just the technique. It is the context and depth in which the technique is delivered.
EMDR + Psychodynamic Therapy — More Targeted, More Lasting
Most EMDR practitioners approach the process as a relatively self-contained protocol: identify the target memory, process it, move on. David’s psychodynamic background adds a crucial layer of precision. By deeply understanding the narrative of a client’s history — the relational patterns, the family dynamics, the meaning-making framework through which formative experiences were filtered — the EMDR targeting becomes far more specific. You’re not neutralizing the emotional charge of an isolated memory in a vacuum. You’re tracing that memory to its roots, understanding what it installed in you, and rewriting the story it has been telling you about yourself at a deeper level than EMDR alone typically reaches.
EMDR + Narrative Therapy — Healing the Story, Not Just the Symptom
Trauma doesn’t just hurt. It tells you things — that you are unworthy, unsafe, responsible, or irreparably damaged. EMDR desensitizes the emotional charge of those messages. Narrative therapy, used alongside it, helps you actively construct a new story: one that integrates what happened without being defined by it. For many clients, this combination produces not just relief from symptoms, but a genuinely different relationship with their own identity and life.
EMDR for LGBTQ+ Trauma — Understanding From the Inside
For gay men, queer individuals, and LGBTQ+ people broadly, the traumas that benefit most from EMDR are often the ones that are hardest to name as trauma: the accumulated weight of years of hiding, the rejection from family or faith communities, the internalized messages about who you are and what you deserve, the specific emotional weight of a coming-out that didn’t go the way you’d hoped. Research on minority stress consistently shows that the chronic, low-level hypervigilance of navigating the world as an LGBTQ+ person produces real neurological and physiological effects — the same kind EMDR is designed to address.
David is an openly gay therapist, a gay adoptive father, and the published author of Gay Dads: A Celebration of Fatherhood (Penguin/Putnam, 2003). He doesn’t need you to explain what minority stress feels like, or why conditional love from a parent carries as much weight as overt rejection, or why coming out at 45 can be more complicated than coming out at 18. He knows these things from the inside. That changes the quality of the therapeutic space — and it changes the quality of the healing.
What to Expect in EMDR Therapy With David
One of the most common reasons people hesitate before starting EMDR is simply not knowing what to expect. Here’s a clear picture of how the process works.
First — A Free 15-Minute Consultation
A no-pressure phone or video call. You’ll share what’s been happening, ask any questions you have about EMDR or the process, and get a genuine sense of whether David is the right fit. No commitment, no paperwork, no judgment. Just a real conversation.
The First Sessions Are About Building the Foundation
This surprises many new clients. EMDR begins with extensive history-taking and preparation — sometimes over multiple sessions — before any active trauma processing begins. This is deliberate and non-negotiable. The preparation phase is what makes the processing safe, contained, and genuinely effective. Rushing into trauma work without adequate groundwork is a mistake some EMDR practitioners make. David does not.
What Bilateral Stimulation Actually Feels Like
In person, bilateral stimulation typically involves guided eye movements — following David’s fingers or a light bar moving left to right. It can also be done with gentle tapping or audio tones. Most clients describe the experience as strange at first, and then surprisingly natural. You are never required to speak during a set of eye movements. You simply notice what comes up.
Sessions May Surface Real Emotion — That Is the Process Working
EMDR can bring up genuine emotion: grief, anger, relief, or the particular disorientation of a memory losing its power for the first time. This is the process working exactly as intended. Every session ends with a dedicated closure phase. David will never end a session while you’re emotionally activated. You will leave grounded, every time.
The Timeline Is Honest and Personalized
For single-incident trauma, EMDR can produce significant relief in a relatively small number of sessions — sometimes fewer than clients expect. For complex trauma, identity-based wounds, or deeply entrenched patterns with long histories, the work takes longer and benefits from a more integrated approach. David will be straightforward with you about what to expect for your specific situation from the beginning.
What EMDR Therapy Is Used to Treat?
EMDR was developed to treat PTSD, and it remains one of the most well-supported treatments for that condition. But its applications have expanded significantly as the research base has grown. David uses EMDR to address:
- Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) — from single-incident trauma such as accidents, sexual assault, and violence, as well as complex, multi-incident trauma
- Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) — the result of prolonged, repeated trauma, often from childhood, relational abuse, or chronic identity-based wounding
- Anxiety disorders — including generalized anxiety, panic disorder, phobias, and social anxiety with traceable traumatic roots
- Depression linked to unprocessed grief, loss, or traumatic life events
- LGBTQ+ identity-based trauma — internalized homophobia, religious trauma, family rejection, coming-out wounds, and the cumulative effects of minority stress
- Childhood and developmental trauma — adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), neglect, emotional abuse, and attachment wounds
- Grief and complicated bereavement
- Performance anxiety and self-esteem issues — particularly relevant for clients in Los Angeles’s entertainment industry and high-achieving professional environments
- Relationship trauma — betrayal, infidelity, emotional abuse, and the aftermath of toxic or coercive relationships
- Shame and negative self-worth — the deeply entrenched belief that one is fundamentally flawed, unlovable, or broken
If you’re unsure whether your experience qualifies as trauma, or whether EMDR would be appropriate for you, the free consultation is the best way to find out. Many people who benefit most from EMDR never thought their experiences were “serious enough.” They were wrong about that.
Why Choose David Strah for EMDR Therapy in Los Angeles?
There are over 200 EMDR-trained therapists in Los Angeles. Here is what makes the clients who find David — especially LGBTQ+ people who have been searching for a therapist who genuinely understands their world — choose him and stay.
He Brings Genuine Lived Experience to LGBTQ+ Trauma Work
David is an openly gay man who has navigated every layer of the LGBTQ+ experience — identity, family, authenticity, and the particular weight of growing up in a world that didn’t always make room for who he is. That lived experience is not incidental to his effectiveness. It is the foundation of it. For LGBTQ+ clients seeking EMDR for identity-based trauma, the therapeutic relationship with someone who genuinely knows the terrain changes everything about the speed and depth of healing.
His Published Authority in LGBTQ+ Life Is Real and Documented
David authored Gay Dads: A Celebration of Fatherhood (Penguin/Putnam, 2003) — a nationally recognized, mainstream-published book that established him as one of the earliest and most prominent thought leaders on gay fatherhood and LGBTQ+ family building in the United States. This depth of public, expert authority is exceptionally rare among EMDR therapists in Los Angeles, and it informs every session he has with LGBTQ+ clients navigating identity-based trauma.
He Integrates EMDR With Psychodynamic Depth for More Precise Healing
EMDR is most powerful when delivered by a therapist who deeply understands the person receiving it. David’s psychodynamic training means that the EMDR targeting is not generic. It is precise, contextual, and calibrated to your specific history, your specific patterns, and your specific goals. This integration produces more targeted and more lasting results than EMDR delivered as a standalone protocol.
You Work Directly With David — Every Session, Without Exception
David does not run a group practice with a rotating roster of associates. When you begin EMDR work with David Strah, you work with David Strah — every session, for the full duration of your healing. Consistency and continuity of therapeutic relationship is especially critical in trauma work. The therapeutic alliance is not a warm-up. It is the mechanism.
Conveniently Located in Los Angeles and Available Throughout California
In-person sessions at 321 N. Larchmont Boulevard, Suite 808, Los Angeles, CA 90004 in Larchmont Village — centrally accessible from Hollywood, Hancock Park, Koreatown, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Mid-City, West Hollywood, and beyond. Secure, HIPAA-compliant telehealth available for any client in California.
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EMDR Therapy in Los Angeles — Session Details
In-Person Sessions
321 N. Larchmont Boulevard, Suite 808 Los Angeles, CA 90004 Larchmont Village — centrally located and accessible from Hollywood, Hancock Park, Koreatown, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Mid-City, West Hollywood, and greater Los Angeles.
Online EMDR Therapy Throughout California
EMDR can be delivered effectively via secure telehealth — research supports its effectiveness for PTSD and complex trauma in the online format. Secure, HIPAA-compliant video sessions available to any client in California.
Session Length
EMDR sessions are typically 60–90 minutes. Active processing sessions are generally longer to allow adequate time for complete processing sets and full closure before the session ends. Your specific session length will be discussed and agreed upon during the consultation.
How to Get Started
Phone: (917) 922-2650
Email: davidstrah@aol.com
Address: 321 N. Larchmont Blvd, Suite 808, Los Angeles, CA 90004
Hours: Monday – Friday: 11:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Frequently Asked Questions About EMDR Therapy in Los Angeles
What is EMDR therapy and how does it work?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based psychotherapy developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s and now recognized by the APA, WHO, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a first-line treatment for PTSD. It works by using bilateral stimulation — typically guided eye movements, but also rhythmic tapping or auditory tones — while a client briefly holds a distressing memory in mind. This activates both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously, mimicking the neurological activity of REM sleep and enabling the brain to reprocess traumatic memories that have become “stuck.” Unlike talk therapy, EMDR does not require detailed verbal narration of traumatic events. Instead, it directly engages the brain’s information processing system, progressively reducing the emotional charge of traumatic memories and replacing the negative beliefs they installed with more accurate, adaptive ones. EMDR follows a structured eight-phase protocol, beginning with thorough history-taking and preparation before any active processing begins.
What does EMDR treat?
EMDR is most well-known for treating PTSD, including from single-incident trauma such as accidents, sexual assault, and combat. The evidence base now extends to complex PTSD from prolonged or repeated trauma; anxiety disorders and phobias with traumatic roots; depression linked to unprocessed grief or traumatic loss; childhood and developmental trauma including abuse, neglect, and attachment wounds; identity-based trauma including LGBTQ+ experiences of rejection, internalized homophobia, religious trauma, and the cumulative effects of minority stress; performance anxiety; relationship trauma; and deeply entrenched shame and negative self-beliefs. Many clients who have made limited progress with anxiety or depression find that EMDR — by addressing the underlying traumatic experiences driving those symptoms — produces change that surface-level treatment could not.
How is EMDR different from talk therapy?
The fundamental difference is where EMDR works. Talk therapy primarily engages the cognitive, verbal parts of the brain — helping clients understand their experiences, reframe thinking, and develop new behaviors. This is valuable. But trauma, particularly when severe or chronic, is not stored only cognitively. It is stored in the body and in the implicit, procedural memory that operates below conscious thought. EMDR works directly with these neurological memory networks, using bilateral stimulation to enable the reprocessing of memories stored in a fragmented, emotionally overwhelming form. For clients who have extensive self-awareness but find their symptoms persist despite that understanding — a wall many therapy-experienced people hit — EMDR reaches where talk therapy alone cannot.
Does EMDR actually work? What does the research say?
EMDR is one of the most extensively researched psychotherapy approaches for trauma, with a robust evidence base. It is endorsed as an effective treatment for PTSD by the APA, the WHO, and numerous major international health organizations. Research consistently shows that EMDR produces significant reductions in PTSD symptoms, often with fewer sessions than other trauma-focused approaches. Studies show that 77–90% of single-trauma PTSD patients no longer meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD after 3–12 sessions of EMDR. For complex trauma and identity-based wounds, clinical outcomes are consistently positive, particularly when EMDR is integrated with thorough preparation, psychodynamic understanding, and a strong therapeutic alliance. EMDR is not a quick fix for complex trauma — but for the right client with the right therapist, it produces profound and lasting change.
Is EMDR effective for LGBTQ+ trauma and identity-based wounds?
Yes — and this is an area of both personal and clinical depth at David Strah Therapy. EMDR is particularly well-suited for the types of trauma that disproportionately affect LGBTQ+ people: internalized homophobia and transphobia, the accumulated impact of family rejection or conditional acceptance, religious trauma, the physiological toll of years of hiding or hypervigilance, and the specific emotional wounds of difficult coming-out experiences. These are often what researchers call “little t” traumas — not a single catastrophic event, but a long accumulation of painful experiences that the nervous system has processed as a chronic threat. EMDR, particularly when delivered by a therapist with genuine personal and published expertise in LGBTQ+ identity — as David has — can access and begin to heal these accumulated wounds in a way that purely cognitive approaches often cannot.
Do I have to describe my trauma in detail during EMDR sessions?
No — and this is one of the most significant advantages of EMDR for clients who have been reluctant to engage with trauma work. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR does not require you to narrate your traumatic experiences in detail. You will be asked to briefly hold the target memory in mind — the associated image, feeling, and belief — while engaging in bilateral stimulation, but you are not required to verbally describe what happened or explain the details of your experience to your therapist. Many clients find this aspect of EMDR a profound relief, particularly for experiences that feel too overwhelming, too shameful, or too private to put into words. The healing happens in the processing — not in the telling.
How many EMDR sessions will I need?
This depends on the nature and complexity of the trauma being addressed, how well-prepared the client is for active processing, and whether the concerns involve single-incident trauma or more complex developmental patterns. For clearly defined, single-incident PTSD, significant improvement is often achieved in 6–12 sessions of active EMDR processing following the preparation phase. For complex PTSD, childhood trauma, or identity-based wounds with long histories, the process takes longer — often months of consistent work. David will be honest and specific with you about a realistic timeline for your situation at the outset, and will review progress openly throughout the process.
Can EMDR be done online via telehealth?
Yes. Research supports the effectiveness of online EMDR therapy, including for PTSD and complex trauma. During online sessions, bilateral stimulation is delivered via guided eye movements using the screen, or through tactile or auditory bilateral stimulation that the client applies themselves. The bilateral stimulation is equally effective when delivered online; what matters most is the quality of the therapeutic relationship and the clinical skill of the therapist. David offers secure, HIPAA-compliant online EMDR sessions to any client in California, and many clients find the privacy and convenience of telehealth particularly beneficial for trauma work.
Are there side effects or risks to EMDR therapy?
EMDR, when conducted by a trained and experienced therapist with adequate preparation, is considered safe and well-tolerated. Some clients experience temporary effects during or after processing sessions: emotional fatigue, heightened sensitivity, vivid dreams, or brief increases in distress as traumatic material is actively being processed. These effects are typically short-lived and are discussed openly at the outset of EMDR work so clients know what to expect. The most significant risk in EMDR — one David takes seriously and actively mitigates — is premature processing before adequate emotional regulation capacity has been established. Rushing into trauma processing without sufficient preparation can leave clients feeling destabilized. David’s preparation phase is thorough and is never abbreviated. Active processing begins only when both client and therapist agree the groundwork has been genuinely laid.
How do I get started with EMDR therapy in Los Angeles?
Getting started is simple. Call or text (917) 922-2650, or submit a contact request through davidstrah.com to schedule a free 15-minute consultation. This initial call is no-pressure: you’ll share what’s bringing you in, ask any questions about EMDR or the process, and get a real sense of whether David is the right fit for your specific situation. If it feels right, you’ll schedule your first full session in person at the Larchmont Boulevard office in Los Angeles, or via secure telehealth anywhere in California. EMDR is one of the most effective therapeutic approaches for trauma that exists. Getting started is the hardest part.
What Happened to You Doesn’t Have to Keep Happening Inside You
Trauma is not a character flaw. It is not weakness. It is the nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do — protecting you from a threat — and getting stuck in that protective response long after the threat has passed.
EMDR is one of the most effective tools available for unsticking that response. For helping your brain do what it has been trying to do all along: process, integrate, and move forward.
If you’ve been carrying something for a long time — something that has resisted all the understanding, all the talking, all the effort you’ve put into it — this might be exactly what’s next.
Your consultation is free. There’s no commitment. It takes 15 minutes. That’s a very small ask for something that could change a very large part of how you experience your own life. Don’t wait.
