Written by Maria Boncyk, LCSW | Reviewed July 2026
This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988.
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is an evidence-based therapy that helps the brain reprocess distressing memories. Maria Boncyk, LCSW offers fully virtual EMDR therapy to clients across New York and Massachusetts, with training completed in 2021, 2022, and 2026. It begins with a free 25-minute consultation.
What EMDR Actually Is, in Plain Language
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a mouthful of a name for an elegantly simple idea: when something overwhelming happens, the brain sometimes fails to file the experience away properly. Instead of becoming an ordinary memory, the experience stays raw, stored with the original images, sensations, and beliefs attached, which is why a smell, a tone of voice, or a moment of conflict can suddenly make you feel exactly the way you felt years ago. EMDR helps the brain finish the filing job. In sessions, you bring a difficult memory to mind while engaging in bilateral stimulation, typically guided eye movements, alternating sounds, or tapping, and this dual attention appears to unlock the brain’s natural processing machinery, similar to what happens during REM sleep. The memory does not disappear, and you do not forget what happened. What changes is the charge. Clients consistently describe the same shift: I remember it, but it does not grab me anymore. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR does not require you to narrate your worst experiences in detail, analyze them for years, or complete homework assignments. The processing happens in the room, at a pace your system sets.
The Evidence Behind EMDR
EMDR is one of the most thoroughly researched trauma treatments in existence. It is recognized by the World Health Organization and the American Psychiatric Association as an evidence-based treatment for post-traumatic stress, and the Department of Veterans Affairs includes it among its strongly recommended trauma therapies. Dozens of randomized controlled trials support its effectiveness, with research consistently showing outcomes comparable to the best trauma-focused talk therapies, often in fewer sessions and with less homework. Originally developed in the late 1980s for single-incident trauma, EMDR has since been extended and refined for complex and relational trauma, anxiety, and the accumulated weight of smaller wounds that never earned the word trauma but still shape a life. Maria has invested in that depth of application deliberately, completing EMDR Basic Training in 2021, Intermediate Training in 2022, and Relational EMDR training in 2026, an advanced approach suited to wounds that formed inside close relationships, where the standard protocol benefits from a more attachment-aware frame.
Ready to Take the First Step?
EMDR Therapy sessions are held virtually, so you can meet with Maria from anywhere in New York or Massachusetts. Request a free 25-minute consultation to see if it feels like the right fit, with no commitment required.
What an EMDR Session Looks Like
EMDR is a phased therapy, and the phases matter. The first sessions look like any thorough therapy intake: your history, your goals, and an honest assessment of readiness. Preparation follows, where you build grounding and self-regulation skills, resources you can reach for if processing gets intense, because a core principle of good EMDR is that stability precedes processing. When processing begins, you and Maria identify a target memory along with the negative belief attached to it, something like I am powerless or I am not enough. You hold the memory lightly in mind while following bilateral stimulation in short sets, and between sets you simply notice what comes up, images, feelings, body sensations, new connections. You are awake, aware, and in control the entire time; EMDR is not hypnosis, and you can stop at any point. Over successive sets, the distress attached to the memory reliably drops, and a truer belief, I survived, I am capable, it was not my fault, starts to feel real rather than merely logical. Virtual EMDR works effectively over telehealth using on-screen visual stimulation or self-tapping techniques, and Maria has delivered EMDR this way since 2021.
Who EMDR Helps Most
EMDR is the treatment of choice for post-traumatic stress, and its reach extends well beyond formal PTSD. It serves people carrying childhood wounds and complex relational trauma, anxiety that has clear roots in past experiences, phobias, grief that will not move, and the harsh internalized beliefs left behind by years of criticism, rejection, or chaos. It is particularly powerful for the client who has already done talk therapy, who understands their patterns thoroughly and can explain exactly where everything came from, yet still feels the same panic, shame, or dread in their body, because EMDR works at the level where insight alone does not reach. It is not the right starting point for everyone. Active substance dependency, unmanaged dissociation, or a life currently in crisis call for stabilization first, and Maria assesses readiness honestly rather than rushing anyone into processing. Within her practice, EMDR is woven into work on complex trauma, childhood experiences, anxiety, and the deeper roots of people pleasing across New York and Massachusetts.
How Long EMDR Takes
The honest answer depends on what is being treated. Research on single-incident trauma, a car accident, an assault, a frightening medical event, shows meaningful resolution sometimes within three to twelve sessions. Complex and childhood trauma runs longer, typically many months, because there are more targets, more preparation, and more relational repair woven through the work. Most clients feel the difference target by target: a memory that rated a nine out of ten in distress finishing at a one or two and staying there. EMDR sessions happen within the standard weekly 50-minute structure of the practice, and treatment planning is transparent, so you always know what phase you are in and why. For clients anywhere in New York or Massachusetts, everything begins with a free 25-minute consultation where you can ask anything about the method and whether it fits your situation.