EMDR Therapy

What EMDR Therapy Is and What It Costs in Los Angeles

If you are weighing EMDR therapy in Los Angeles, two questions usually come first: what actually happens in the room, and what it will cost you. This page answers both in plain terms, including the parts most practices leave vague.

At Life Threads Therapy®, EMDR is offered by two EMDR trained therapists, in person at our West Los Angeles office and by secure video anywhere in California, at a flat $200 a session.

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What EMDR Is

EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a structured, evidence-based therapy that helps the brain reprocess distressing memories so they lose their emotional charge. While you hold a memory briefly in mind, your therapist guides bilateral stimulation: eye movements, tapping or tones that alternate from one side to the other. Over repeated sets, the memory stays yours, but it stops taking over your body when something in the present brushes against it. EMDR is recognized as a treatment for trauma by the American Psychological Association, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Our EMDR therapy page describes the approach itself; this page is about what to expect and what you pay.

EMDR follows an eight-phase protocol. Phases one and two are history and preparation: your therapist learns what brought you in, maps the memories that still carry a charge, and teaches you ways to settle your nervous system before any of them are touched. Phases three through six are the reprocessing of a single target memory, with sets of bilateral stimulation, until it no longer produces the same disturbance. Phase seven closes each session so you leave steady, and phase eight opens the next one by checking what held. Preparation comes first for a plain reason: reprocessing asks your nervous system to revisit something it has worked hard to avoid, and that only goes well when you already have reliable ways to come back down. At Life Threads, no memory is targeted until those ways are in place.

The eight phases of EMDR, from history and preparation through reprocessing and closure

Who EMDR Is For, and Who Should Wait

EMDR is built for experiences the mind has not been able to file away. That includes a single frightening event, such as an accident, an assault or a medical emergency, and the slower, repeated kind of harm, such as growing up with a parent who was unpredictable or years inside a relationship that wore you down. It is most often used for PTSD and complex trauma, and many people come to it for panic, anxiety or a harsh inner critic that traces back to specific moments. Bree Anthony, MA, LMFT, our clinic director, is EMDR trained and works with teens and adults on PTSD and complex trauma. Lyndsay Mclaren, LPCC is also EMDR trained and brings it into her trauma work alongside eating disorders and substance use.

Not everyone should start reprocessing right away, and a careful EMDR therapist will say so. If you are in the middle of an ongoing crisis, if you are using substances to get through most days, if your eating is not safe, or if you do not yet have ways to steady yourself when a memory surfaces, the honest first step is stabilization: building those skills, sometimes with DBT or IFS, before any memory is targeted. That is not a detour from EMDR. It is phases one and two, and skipping it is how people end up feeling worse after a session. Our trauma therapist page describes how we pace this.

How Long EMDR Takes

It varies, and anyone who quotes you a fixed number of sessions before meeting you is guessing. A single-incident memory in someone who is otherwise steady, with people around them and no long history of trauma, is a different piece of work from years of complex trauma that shaped how you see yourself and what you expect from other people. The first needs a shorter preparation phase and a focused run of reprocessing on one target. The second usually needs a longer preparation phase, more targets, and time between them for the changes to settle.

Reprocessing sessions can be tiring, so we plan the pace with you rather than push through. What we can tell you at the free consultation is which of those two pictures you are closer to and what the first stretch of work would likely look like. What we will not do is promise a session count, because the protocol responds to how your nervous system answers, not to a schedule set in advance.

What EMDR Costs at Life Threads

Every session at Life Threads Therapy® is a flat $200. EMDR is not priced differently from any other session, there is no sliding scale, and the number you see is the number you pay. Before any of that, a free 20-minute consultation, with no charge and no obligation.

We are out of network with insurance, which is not the same as insurance not applying. Most PPO plans with out-of-network benefits reimburse 50 to 80 percent of the session cost once your out-of-network deductible is met. Before your first session we check your out-of-network benefits so you know where you stand. After each session we file the claim for you, and the reimbursement check comes from your insurer to you. The reimbursement estimator shows what a session is likely to cost after your plan pays its share; nothing you type into it is stored. HSA and FSA funds can usually be used for therapy. Our private pay page covers the rest of the money questions.

Online EMDR across California is the same protocol at the same price. The eight phases, the preparation, the bilateral stimulation adapted for video, and the $200 fee are identical whether you are in the West Los Angeles office or on a secure video call from anywhere in the state. Our online EMDR page explains how the video version works.

Getting Started

Every new client starts with a free 20-minute consultation: a conversation about what is happening, whether EMDR is the right starting point or stabilization comes first, and what a session will cost once your benefits are checked. Book online, or send a question through the contact page first if that feels easier. Weekday appointments run 9 to 7, in person at our West Los Angeles office or by secure video anywhere in California.

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EMDR Cost and Treatment Questions

The questions people ask before booking EMDR.

Not directly at Life Threads, because we are out of network with insurance. What usually applies instead is out-of-network reimbursement: if your plan is a PPO with out-of-network benefits, it typically reimburses 50 to 80 percent of the $200 session cost once you have met your out-of-network deductible. We check your benefits before the first session and file the claims for you, and the check comes from the insurer to you. If your plan has no out-of-network benefits, there is usually nothing to reimburse, and we will tell you that when we check rather than let you find out later. The reimbursement estimator shows the likely cost per session for your plan.
Yes. We offer EMDR by secure video anywhere in California, using the same eight-phase protocol with bilateral stimulation adapted for the screen. Preparation matters even more online, because you are in your own space rather than the office, so we spend time on where you will sit, who is around, and how you will settle afterwards. The fee is the same $200. Our online EMDR page goes into the practical details.
No. EMDR does not require you to narrate the event the way some talk therapies do. During reprocessing you hold a brief image or sense of the memory in mind while the bilateral stimulation runs, and between sets you report what came up in a few words. Your therapist needs enough to know what you are targeting, not a full account. For many people that is the reason EMDR feels possible when talking it through did not.
No reprocessing. The first sessions are history and preparation: what brought you in, what you want to change, the memories that still carry a charge, and the resources you already have. Your therapist teaches you ways to settle your nervous system and checks that they work for you before any memory is targeted. Because we check your out-of-network benefits before that first session, you also walk in knowing what a session is likely to cost you.

Know What EMDR Involves Before You Book

Book a free 20-minute consultation and we will tell you whether EMDR is the right starting point and what it will cost once your benefits are checked. No commitment required.

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If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, please contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988, or go to your nearest emergency room. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice or a therapeutic relationship.