Something in you
is ready to
SHIFT.
Unprocessed trauma gets stuck in the body. EMDR helps it move — a passage, not a performance. Sankofa Rooted™ brings that clinical work together with African ancestral healing. Mind, body, and spirit. Trauma lives in all three.
What is EMDR?
EMDR helps unprocessed trauma get unstuck. The body holds what the mind could not yet release — locked, replaying. EMDR works with how the brain stores those experiences and helps release what the body has been holding. Not talking through it. Moving through.
What is Sankofa Rooted™?
Sankofa Rooted™ goes to the roots — to the past, but does not leave you there. It brings forth what needs to pass.
It weaves the clinical framework of EMDR with African ancestral healing. Not one or the other — both. A person is mind, body, and spirit. Trauma lives in all three. Sankofa Rooted™ holds all of it.
What have you been carrying —
and how can EMDR help?
Each card below names what you may be carrying — and how EMDR may help you move through it.
Grace built SHIFT Your Journey® from one conviction — that Black communities and communities of color deserve a healing space designed for them, not adapted for them. Every part of this work carries that intention.
Charlson brings cultural fluency and clinical depth to every session. You will not need to explain your context before the work can begin.
Ready To Begin
A Conversation?
A consultation to discuss what you are carrying and assess clinical fit. There may be immediate availability.
Request an AppointmentWhy experiences get stuck —
and how EMDR helps them move.
Your brain is designed to protect you. But sometimes that protection keeps painful experiences locked in place — replaying in your body long after the moment has passed.
"Your brain stored it to survive. EMDR helps your brain understand: the danger has passed."
Not sure if this is the right fit?
A consultation to assess clinical fit. EMDR is not for everyone — and we will always tell you honestly. There may be immediate availability. Spaces are limited.
Request an AppointmentSankofa Rooted™
Extended EMDR Sessions
90-minute sessions. Three pathways structured by clinical depth. Sessions may be scheduled once or twice per week depending on clinical readiness and your schedule.
There is something specific you are carrying. One experience — a moment, a period, a memory — that your nervous system has never fully let go of. You may not think about it every day. But when it surfaces, it does not feel like the past. It feels like right now.
This pathway gives that one experience the full attention it deserves. EMDR works by helping your brain finally process what it has been holding in suspension — not by reliving it, but by allowing the mind and body to work through it together until the charge releases. Many people describe the difference as: the memory is still there, but it no longer runs them.
Some things do not trace back to one moment. They trace back to a relationship, a season, a loss that compounded into another loss — or a pattern you have watched yourself repeat without being able to stop it. You know there is more than one layer. You have tried to address it, and found that working on one piece only reveals another.
This pathway holds space for two targets — two experiences or two dimensions of the same wound. EMDR processes each one through the full 8-phase protocol. When the beliefs formed around painful experiences begin to change — when "I am not enough" becomes "I am enough" not as a thought you tell yourself, but as something your nervous system actually believes — the pattern begins to shift.
You are not carrying one thing. You are carrying everything — and some of it was never even yours to begin with.
The hypervigilance you walk into every room with. The exhaustion of navigating spaces that were not designed to hold you. The grief that has no single source. The childhood that shaped how you trust, love, and show up. The way your family moved through the world — and what you absorbed without being asked. This is not a single wound. This is a life.
The Transformation pathway is the most comprehensive arc of EMDR work we offer. Multiple experiences are processed — including racialized experiences, generational patterns, childhood wounds, and identity-based pain. African ancestral healing practices are woven into every phase. And near the close of the work, we install a future self — not a vision board, but a nervous system-level image of who you are becoming, so your body has somewhere new to go.
Clinical note: All materials are psychoeducational — not for independent trauma processing. Duration is guided by clinical need. Delivered by EMDR-trained clinicians at SHIFT Your Journey® Mental Health Counseling, PLLC, committed to EMDRIA standards.
What you experience
here is different.
Sankofa Rooted™ is not EMDR with cultural language layered on top. The Akan Sankofa principle — go back and fetch it — is the clinical framework. Retrieve what was left behind. Move forward whole.
The evidence
is clear.
Used in over 130 countries. Decades of clinical evidence. The research is clear.
A different layer of the same healing
Talk therapy and EMDR work at different levels — and both matter. Talk therapy builds insight, language, and relational safety. EMDR works with how experiences are stored in the nervous system, below the level that words alone can reach. At SHIFT Your Journey®, we offer both. If EMDR is not the right fit for where you are, we will always tell you — and point you toward what is.
EMDR processes what racism does to the body
Per EMDRIA, EMDR can process and gradually reduce the distressing memories and negative cognitions associated with racism — reducing the emotional charge of racialized experiences and supporting reintegration of identity. This is documented, clinical, and real.
Before you reach out,
here are the answers.
Yes. Research supports EMDR via telehealth as effective and appropriate for prepared clients. All sessions are delivered online across CT, FL, MA, NJ, NY, PA, and TX.
Talk therapy and EMDR are both valuable — they work at different levels. Talk therapy builds understanding, insight, and relational safety. EMDR works with how experiences are stored in the nervous system, engaging the brain's processing system directly. Many clients benefit from both. At SHIFT Your Journey®, we offer talk therapy as well. If EMDR is not the right fit, we will tell you — and we will work with you to identify what is.
A standard therapy appointment is 53 minutes — of which roughly 15–20 minutes goes to check-in, warm-up, and closing safely. That leaves a narrow window for reprocessing work. At 90 minutes, that window expands significantly. Research supports 90-minute sessions as an effective format for EMDR reprocessing — enough time to open a target, move through it, and close safely in a single session.
SHIFT Your Journey® accepts insurance across all states we serve. Coverage for EMDR extended sessions varies by plan and state. Your Care Coordinator will verify your benefits before your first session — you will always know what is covered before you commit. Self-pay options are also available. Fee is discussed upon request — after clinical fit is confirmed.
You do not have to know before you call. That is exactly what the consultation is for. The conversation with our Care Coordinator is designed to understand what you are carrying and assess — honestly — whether EMDR is the right approach and which pathway fits. You will never be matched to a pathway that is not clinically appropriate. There may be immediate availability.
Session counts are clinically informed starting points — not fixed limits. If additional sessions are indicated, your clinician will always tell you before the pathway ends. You will never be pushed toward more than what is clinically warranted, and you will never be left without a plan.
The first step is
a conversation.
A conversation to assess fit — honestly. EMDR is not right for everyone. There may be immediate availability. If talk therapy or another approach fits better right now, we will say so. Spaces are limited.
Insurance accepted · Self-pay options available
"Therapy designed with intention." · "Building Generational Emotional Wealth™"
(914) 221-3200 · SHIFT Your Journey® Mental Health Counseling, PLLC