Decoding the Alphabet Soup
of Therapy

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It’s a therapy technique designed to help people heal from traumatic memories that get “stuck” in the brain and body. 

Trauma can interrupt the brain’s natural healing process. EMDR helps restore that process.

Using guided recall of difficult events while engaging in bilateral stimulation, clients begin to reframe, release, and neutralize the emotional intensity of those memories. EMDR doesn’t erase what happened—it helps change how it lives in you.

IFS stands for Internal Family Systems, based on a surprisingly intuitive idea: inside each of us are many “parts”—sub-personalities that carry different roles, emotions, and experiences. Some parts protect us. Some carry pain. Some are stuck in roles from childhood or trauma.

But underneath it all, IFS teaches that every person has a Self—a core of calm, compassion, and clarity that can help bring healing to those parts. Many of us live in a constant internal tug-of-war: IFS helps understand why those parts

are there and how to work

with them—not shame them

or get rid of them.

Psychodynamic theory is a framework in psychology that explores the interplay between conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind, focusing on how early experiences and unconscious drives shape personality and behavior. It emphasizes the impact of unconscious processes and internal conflicts on behavior and mental health. It views human functioning as a result of the interaction between internal forces and past experiences, particularly unconscious ones, which can significantly impact current behavior and mental health.