Healing the Mind: Real EMDR Outcomes From Obsidian Counseling & Wellness
By Ilyssa E. Lasky, MS, LCPC, RYT
If you’ve ever felt “stuck” in a memory, emotion, or belief that your mind can’t seem to shake, you’re not alone. Many people who come to therapy describe feeling like their body remembers something long after the moment has passed. Even when they rationally know they’re safe, the emotional part of the brain can keep reacting as if the danger is still present because, to the emotional brain, it still is.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma-focused therapy that helps the brain finally finish processing what happened—so the past stops interrupting the present.
At Obsidian Counseling & Wellness, EMDR has become one of the most impactful modalities we use, especially with individuals who have experienced distressing and overwhelming events. Recently, we analyzed our EMDR outcomes data to better understand how clients actually change across sessions. What we found was hopeful, empowering, and very much worth sharing.
What Is EMDR, in Simple Terms?
EMDR helps your brain do what it was designed to do: heal.
When something painful and overwhelming happens, sometimes the brain can’t finish processing what happened and stores the memory “unfinished.” That’s why people may continue to feel:
Anxiety
Hypervigilance
Self-doubt
Shame
Flashbacks or intrusive thoughts
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (like eye movements, tapping, or sound) to help the brain reprocess the stuck and unfinished memory. The goal is not to erase the past—it's to take away the emotional charge so that the memory feels neutral instead of activating.
Two Ways We Measure Change in EMDR
To understand how clients are progressing, EMDR uses two simple measurement tools:
1. SUD: Subjective Units of Distress
A scale from 0–10, measuring how upsetting a memory feels right now.
2. VOC: Validity of Cognition
A scale from 1–7, measuring how strongly you believe a positive, healing belief, such as:
“I am safe now.”
“I did the best I could.”
“I can handle this.”
As distress goes down and healthy beliefs go up, clients often begin to feel lighter, calmer, and more in control. EMDR practitioners aim for what is called an “ecologically sound” reduction in SUD. Some disturbing events are just not “okay” never will be, and it is unreasonable to expect those to reach an SUD of 0. That is when an SUD of 1-3 may be more reasonable. Relief is still achieved but without the unrealistic pressure to view the event with neutrality.
What Our EMDR Data Shows
We reviewed multiple EMDR cases over the past several years at Obsidian Counseling & Wellness. All identifying information was removed, and what emerged was a clear pattern:
✔ Distress decreases across treatment.
Across most clients, their SUD scores—how distressed they felt when recalling the memory—went down over the course of treatment. Even clients who had a spike in distress in early sessions, usually a sign the distress was suppressed in order to function, eventually experienced a meaningful drop.
✔ Positive beliefs get stronger.
Every client who completed multiple sessions showed increased VOC scores. That means clients left therapy feeling more grounded in beliefs like “I am strong,” “I can trust myself,” or “It is safe to have feelings now.”
✔ EMDR works even when sessions feel challenging.
Some clients experienced overwhelm or needed to pause processing during certain sessions. Even so, their long-term patterns still showed improvement in both distress and belief strength. EMDR can be safely paused without any detriment to long-term treatment and relief.
These results are powerful, because they reflect real people—not research subjects—working through real life experiences.
What This Means for Healing
The patterns we see in our data reflect a hopeful truth:
The brain is capable of healing—and EMDR helps it get there.
Clients often report:
Feeling calmer
Having fewer triggers
Greater self-compassion
Less emotional reactivity
More confidence and clarity
A sense of “finally moving on”
EMDR doesn’t require you to retell the story in detail. In fact, EMDR discourages too much verbal processing. It doesn’t require years of talking through the same memory, either. It works with your nervous system, not against it—helping your mind complete what was left unfinished.
A Few Reflections From Our Team
As clinicians, we continue to be humbled by EMDR’s impact. Each client’s journey is unique, but the trends we’re seeing show that:
Healing doesn’t have to take forever.
Trauma responses can soften.
People can truly change how they feel about themselves.
Relief is possible—even if nothing else has worked.
This is why EMDR remains a core offering in our practice. The results speak for themselves.
If You’re Curious About EMDR
If you’ve been wondering whether EMDR might help you—or someone you care about—we’d be honored to walk with you. You don’t have to keep carrying the weight alone. There is a way forward, and healing is more possible than you may think. 💚
You can reach us anytime at:
847-564-3460
About Ilyssa E. Lasky, MS, LCPC, RYT and Obsidian Counseling and Wellness
Obsidian Counseling & Wellness is a trauma-informed therapy practice founded by Ilyssa Lasky, LCPC. Based on the North Shore of Chicago, the practice offers compassionate, evidence-based counseling for individuals across the age span in Illinois. Obsidian is rooted in the belief that clients already hold the tools for healing and counseling helps bring that inner wisdom into focus.
