EMDR Intensives for Grieving Couples in Richmond, VA - West End

Holding space for grief while finding steadier ground, even in uncertainty.

Wildflowers in a green meadow with mountains and a partly cloudy sky in the background.

There’s room for your grief, your love, and your story.

You and your partner each came into this relationship with your own histories, hopes, wounds, and ways of coping. The loss of a pregnancy, baby, or young child doesn’t just bring heartbreak — it overlays an already complex relationship landscape, sometimes magnifying tensions or struggles that were already there.

You may both be grieving deeply but in very different ways, leaving you feeling disconnected or even at odds with one another when you need each other most. EMDR offers a space to slow down, honor both your shared pain and your individual experiences, and gently begin untangling the grief that has wrapped itself around your relationship. Here, there’s room for everything you’re carrying — together.

A gentle, respectful path forward—with your partner.

EMDR doesn’t erase grief — and it shouldn’t. Instead, it offers a tender space to help soften the sharpest edges, ease the moments that feel unmanageable, and make room for you and your partner to reconnect, remember, and carry forward your love for your baby or child.

I honor not only the grief but the complexities you both brought into the relationship before this loss: the patterns, fears, and differences that now feel magnified. Together, we’ll carefully explore how grief has shaped your connection and how you can begin imagining a future — whether that means considering other pregnancies, navigating the decision not to, or simply learning how to carry hope and sorrow side by side. 


Grief and trauma don’t just live in our thoughts — they settle into our bodies and our nervous systems, getting stuck and making it hard to move forward.  EMDR is a well-researched, proven approach that helps to gently untangle these stuck places. It’s a way to ease the weight and intensity of grief while still honoring the deep love and lasting connection you carry. EMDR doesn’t erase your story — it simply helps you carry it with more steadiness and less overwhelm.

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Safety, care, and respect at every step.

Our work together moves through eight carefully curated phases:

  • We’ll explore what brings you here, your hopes, and what’s been weighing on your heart.

  • We’ll work together to create a sense of safety and stability, so you feel supported and ready.

  • We’ll gently identify the memories, feelings, or beliefs that feel most tangled or painful right now.

  • We’ll use gentle, guided methods like tapping or eye movements to help reduce the emotional charge around those memories

  • We’ll help your mind and body hold onto the insights, strengths, or comforting truths that come forward

  • We’ll check in with your body to see what feels settled or still needs care

  • We’ll reflect on how things are shifting and decide together where to go next

  • We gently lean into what’s next, exploring how to carry what we’ve uncovered into your life and relationship moving forward.

The world feels unbearably heavy.

EMDR is not about “fixing” grief or making you forget.

It’s about…

  • Finding space to honor your grief without judgment or timelines

  • Nourishing a relationship with painful memories, triggers, or fears

  • Renewing emotional closeness and understanding between partners

  • Gaining support in navigating the hard questions about your future

  • Learning how carry love and connection for your baby or child into your ongoing life and relationship

FAQs

  • EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured, evidence-based therapy designed to help the brain process painful or traumatic memories in a new, less distressing way. It helps move memories that feel “stuck” or overwhelming into a more integrated, adaptive place.

  • Bilateral stimulation refers to gentle, back-and-forth movements (like eye movements, tapping, or sounds) that activate both sides of the brain. This back-and-forth action helps the brain reprocess difficult memories or emotions more effectively, reducing their emotional intensity over time.

  • No. EMDR does not require you to talk through every detail of your loss out loud. Instead, we focus on the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations linked to the memory, using bilateral stimulation to help your brain do the work internally.

  • Yes. Many grieving couples are also parenting living children, which can bring additional layers of guilt, fear, or confusion. EMDR creates space to honor your grief without diminishing the love and care you offer your other children — it helps you carry both with compassion.

  • That’s completely okay. EMDR can work alongside other types of therapy and isn’t meant to replace the support you’re already receiving. In fact, EMDR can often help deepen the work you’re doing elsewhere by targeting specific memories, emotions, or patterns that feel stuck. We’ll collaborate thoughtfully to make sure the process supports, rather than overwhelms, your existing therapeutic journey.

  • While EMDR doesn’t make decisions for you, it can help release the emotional blocks — the fear, guilt, or past trauma — that cloud your ability to think about the future. It offers steadiness and clarity as you navigate these deeply personal choices.

  • Every couple’s journey is unique. We will create a plan together, whether that’s a focused short-term intensive or a longer series of sessions. There’s no one-size-fits-all timeline — we move at the pace that feels right for you.