If you’ve been navigating the challenging aftermath of trauma, chronic stress, or anxiety, you’ve probably come across two powerful approaches to healing: EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and Neurofeedback (EEG Biofeedback).
Maybe you’ve heard of one from a therapist or a friend, or maybe you’re just beginning to explore what might help you feel better.
But how do you know which one is the best fit for your needs? 🤔
Or maybe you’ve even tried EMDR or Neurofeedback, found some relief, but still feel like something’s missing—like there’s another layer to your healing that hasn’t been addressed yet.
You’re not alone in this.
Many of my clients come to me with similar feelings of confusion or frustration. They’ve done the work, but they’re still stuck in patterns of:
✔️ overthinking,
✔️ restlessness,
✔️ irritability,
✔️ and brain fog.
Or physical symptoms like:
✔️ poor sleep,
✔️ chronic fatigue,
✔️ digestive issues,
✔️ and chronic tension or pain.
But here’s the good news: one of these approaches is likely the missing piece you’ve been searching for.
In this blog post, we’ll break down the key differences between EMDR and Neurofeedback to help you make an informed decision and feel more confident about your next steps.
You’ll also meet a real-life client who tried both EMDR and Neurofeedback on her healing journey, revealing the surprising results that led to lasting change—and how you can find the right approach for your own transformation.
What We’ll Cover in This Blog Post
- What Happens in a Session: EMDR vs. Neurofeedback
- What Changes in the Brain and Nervous System with EMDR and Neurofeedback?
- What Results Can You Expect with EMDR vs. Neurofeedback
- Should You Combine EMDR and Neurofeedback?
- Why Reprocessing Trauma Might Not Be Enough
- A Real-Life Transformation: Carly’s Journey with EMDR and Embodied Neurofeedback
- Embodied Neurofeedback as a Comprehensive Approach to Deep Healing
Let’s dive in and explore the most common questions about the differences between EMDR therapy and Neurofeedback (EEG Biofeedback), what each of these approaches can offer, and most importantly, how they can help you achieve the healing you deserve.
What Happens in a Session of EMDR or Neurofeedback Therapy?
EMDR Therapy Intensives and Neurofeedback sessions are very different experiences. Let’s take a look.
What is EMDR and How Does it Work?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) involves working directly with a therapist to reprocess specific traumatic memories. You’ll typically focus on an event that still feels emotionally charged and use guided bilateral stimulation (like following a light or tapping) to help your brain process it in a healthier way.
EMDR sessions are very focused on the memories and emotions tied to specific events.
What is Neurofeedback and How Does it Differ From EMDR?
Neurofeedback (EEG Biofeedback), on the other hand, is a different experience altogether.
❌ No recounting of trauma or other memories is required.
In fact, other than reviewing changes in your current symptoms in order to better fine-tune your brain training, very little talking is needed (but it’s certainly allowed if you prefer!).
💻 During a session, sensors placed on your scalp measure your brainwave activity while you watch a screen and/or listen to sounds. You receive immediate visual or auditory feedback as your brain learns to shift into healthier patterns by chasing the rewards it sees and hears.
🌟 Embodied Neurofeedback in Richmond, VA, takes this one step further by integrating somatic and non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation techniques to regulate your body and nervous system alongside the brain training (more on this later).
Alpha-Theta Neurotherapy: A Gentle Path to Subconscious Healing Without Reliving Trauma
If you’re interested in trauma reprocessing but don’t want to consciously relive distressing memories, Alpha-Theta Neurotherapy—a specialized form of Neurofeedback—could be the right choice for you.
🧘🏽 During Alpha-Theta Neurotherapy sessions, you listen to auditory feedback only and are guided into a deeply relaxed, meditative state where the brain shifts back and forth between slower Alpha and Theta brainwave patterns.
This state allows for subconscious processing of traumatic memories or adverse experiences, rather than requiring you to recall events consciously.
What’s Changing in My Brain and Nervous System with EMDR Therapy and Neurofeedback Therapy?
EMDR: Reprocessing Trauma-Memory Areas in the Brain
EMDR is highly effective for reprocessing the brain areas associated with specific traumatic memories.
🧠 By activating and involving both hemispheres of the brain while recalling aspects of the traumatic event, EMDR strengthens the connections between critical regions responsible for the emotional response to the trauma (including the visceral, physical reactions it triggers), distinguishing past from present time, and verbalizing and cognitively understanding the event.
Neurofeedback: Enhancing Overall Brain Connectivity for Broader Healing
Neurofeedback works at the level of brainwave patterns.
Trauma, stress, and anxiety can lock your brain into extremes of overactivation or shutdown. Neurofeedback teaches your brain to shift out of these stuck patterns.
🧠 Over time, this rewiring helps your brain return to a state of balance and regulation, addressing not just emotional symptoms but also physical ones like poor sleep, chronic fatigue, or tension.
Embodied Neurofeedback: Transforming Interconnected Systems for Lasting Nervous System Regulation
For many of the clients I see, the trauma isn’t just one isolated event. It’s an ongoing atmosphere of stress from childhood, chronic anxiety, or even health issues layered on top of a single “shock trauma” event. This creates a systemic issue that EMDR alone often can’t resolve.
🧠 Embodied Neurofeedback addresses stuck brainwave states and then goes further by addressing the interconnected systems of the brain, body and overall nervous system by:
✔️ helping calm the Vagus Nerve (your parasympathetic nervous system’s primary nerve), which plays a key role in regulating your nervous system,
✔️ increasing the coherence between your heart and brain, bringing all your systems in-sync,
✔️ and incorporating somatic techniques to release stored tension and trauma in the body by restoring your fascia.
This comprehensive approach ensures that the changes aren’t just in your brain—they’re felt throughout your entire system.
What Results Can I Expect with EMDR Therapy or Neurofeedback?
Both EMDR and Neurofeedback can create meaningful change.
Results with EMDR: Freedom from Trauma Symptoms
After EMDR, many people find they are less reactive to specific triggers or memories.
This can be incredibly freeing if dealing with specific triggers, flashbacks or nightmares are your only concerns. For some people, reducing these specific symptoms is enough to create a feeling of calm in their daily life.
Results with Embodied Neurofeedback: Whole-System Healing and Broader Life Transformation
By shifting stuck brainwave patterns and creating better overall resilience, Neurofeedback also reduces sensitivity to triggers and helps diminish flashbacks, nightmares, and the emotional charge of traumatic memories.
But with Neurofeedback—and particularly Embodied Neurofeedback in Richmond, VA—the changes tend to ripple out more broadly.
Why?
🎯 Because it’s working at the root level of both brain and overall nervous system function, clients often report improvements in their overall mood, resilience, energy, and physical health.
They’re not just calmer in one situation—they feel more steady and present across the board.
🌟 Many clients describe it as feeling like their “entire system” starts working better—creating lasting shifts in how they think, feel, and respond to life’s challenges.
Should You Combine EMDR and Neurofeedback?
Wondering if combining EMDR and Neurofeedback at the same time would be even more effective? 💪🏽
If so, you’re not alone.
But here’s why that might not be a good idea…
The Risk of Overwhelming Your System with Two Powerful Modalities
While it can sound appealing, this is often unnecessary – and can even be counterproductive.
Why?
Both approaches work to create similar changes in brain connectivity.
They each help strengthen neural pathways between areas of the brain involved in processing emotions, being fully focused on the present moment, and fostering better emotion regulation.
In essence, you only need one of these tools to achieve those results effectively.
Additionally, doubling up on these powerful modalities while they’re each working to make significant changes to your brain’s connectivity can overwhelm or even confuse your system. 🫤
Pushing both at the same time risks overloading your system and potentially stalling progress.
By focusing on one modality, you allow your brain and nervous system the space to integrate those changes deeply and sustainably.
The Case for Choosing a True Specialist in EMDR or Neurofeedback
Additionally, the expertise of your provider matters.
Both modalities require substantial training and keeping up with ongoing research.
To get the best results for the time – and money – you’ll invest, it’s recommended you work with a provider who has made one of these modalities their primary focus.
A provider who specializes in one modality is more likely to:
🌟 Participate in continuous professional development and mentoring
🌟 Keep up with the ever-growing body of research in their field
🌟 Have the ongoing experience to recognize subtle nuances during sessions,
🌟 And be able to fine-tune your treatment plan effectively.
What does all of this mean for you?
Better results – faster!
When a Holistic Approach Works
This doesn’t mean providers who use complementary modalities aren’t effective—in fact, programs like Embodied Neurofeedback combine techniques that work on different systems to create a holistic approach (more on this in a minute, I promise).
However, because both EMDR and Neurofeedback impact brain connectivity, it’s best to focus on one at a time for the most precise and effective treatment.
Why Isn’t Reprocessing My Trauma Enough?
It’s natural to think that healing trauma means revisiting and reprocessing specific memories—especially if you’ve experienced debilitating flashbacks, nightmares, or noticeable triggers tied to an event.
While this can be helpful, it’s not the full picture.
The Deeper Impact of Trauma on the Brain and Body
For many clients, trauma isn’t a standalone event. It often arises on top of pre-existing stressors, like chronic anxiety, childhood adversity, or health conditions.
Even without these underlying factors, trauma can create a profound and permanent shift in brainwave patterns, forcing the nervous system into a new baseline state of fight-or-flight—or eventually into freeze and shutdown.
Symptoms like anxiety, depression, chronic stress, poor sleep, or physical pain aren’t caused by the memory itself but by the lasting impact of that shift.
And this shift is systemic – not just tied to the traumatic memory itself – that can leave you stuck in overdrive or burnout.
Which is why, for many people, reprocessing memories with EMDR can reduce emotional triggers, but it doesn’t address the deeper patterns of brainwaves and nervous system dysregulation.
Similarly, if you’ve tried lots of DIY strategies that claim to regulate your nervous system and found they didn’t resolve your struggles, it’s not a failure on your part—it’s simply that a nervous system stuck in survival mode needs more direct, targeted support.
➡️ This is where Embodied Neurofeedback comes in. By working directly with the brain, body and overall nervous system, it helps restore balance at the root level, create a more lasting, comprehensive change and laying the foundation for lasting regulation and resilience.
(➡️ Note: for those who still want a way to work through memories gently, Alpha-Theta neurotherapy can provide a safe, effective path as part of the Embodied Neurofeedback program.)
Carly’s Path to True Calm: EMDR Therapy and Embodied Neurofeedback
From EMDR Success to Lingering Unease
Let me introduce you to Carly (pseudonym), who came to me after trying EMDR intensives.
Carly’s experience with EMDR had been positive in many ways—she felt an emotional release, and the intensity of her trauma-related cues had diminished. She wasn’t having flashbacks anymore, and her nightmares had stopped.
However, she noticed that despite these changes, she still felt off.
Carly described it as living with a baseline of tension, like she was always waiting for the other shoe to drop. She wasn’t as reactive to major triggers, but small things—like misplacing her keys—would send her into a tailspin of irritation or agitation.
Even more confusing for her was that she still wasn’t waking up feeling rested, even though her sleep wasn’t being interrupted by nightmares anymore.
Embodied Neurofeedback: Addressing Broader Brain Reactivity and Nervous System Dysregulation
When Carly began Embodied Neurofeedback, we focused on addressing her over-activated brain state and supporting her nervous system to experience what safety truly feels like.
This wasn’t a quick fix or a forced temporary calm.
After all, Carly’s nervous system had learned that staying on high alert—never letting her guard down—was the only way she would stay safe from potential danger in the future.
❌ Trying to work too quickly would have run the risk of triggering resistance from the more protective parts of her subconscious—resistance that could have shown up as increased reactivity, difficulty sleeping, or a return of previous symptoms. (These reactions are the system’s way of pulling you back to the more familiar and supposedly “safe” state of survival mode, stuck in fight or flight.)
So, instead, we took it slooow…
✔️ carefully shifting her brainwaves to a more flexible pattern that was no longer stuck in overdrive, taking in too much information and anxiously ruminating on events,
✔️ and gently stimulating her vagus nerve non-invasively and incrementally, cuing her deepest nervous system state to one of safety rather than assumed danger.
We helped her system trust that being in a calm and safe state was not just possible but beneficial.
By respecting her nervous system’s pace and avoiding overwhelm – and therefore avoiding a rebounding return of her symptoms – we were able to guide her toward genuine, sustainable change. 💫
Early Wins and Long-Term Progress
After just a few sessions, Carly started noticing small changes. She wasn’t as irritable and began to feel lighter emotionally.
By the 10th session, she reported feeling calm and clear-headed in a way she hadn’t experienced in years – starting to allow her the time and energy to:
✔️ be more productive,
✔️ be present with her friends and family,
✔️ and actually make time for self-care! (Carly had heard a rumor this was possible but had never experienced it for herself 😉)
Over time, we worked to help her brain and nervous system build flexibility and resilience so this new state could become her norm.
Adding Somatic Techniques for Deeper Healing
As she felt more space in her mind – and she had freed up her time and energy – we also integrated somatic techniques to address chronic pain and tension Carly had carried for years.
Through Yin and Restorative Yoga practices that focused on her fascia, she found relief and a deeper sense of physical restoration.
A New Normal: Emotional Resilience and Lasting Calm
Now, Carly has the capacity to handle life’s ups and downs without feeling overwhelmed or stuck in survival mode. She experiences…
✔️ A true sense of calm and clarity that replaces the constant feeling of being on edge.
✔️ Better sleep patterns, waking up feeling rested and ready for the day.
✔️ Emotional balance, feeling lighter and less reactive to everyday stressors.
✔️ Physical relief, as chronic pain and tension are behind her.
💪🏽 And on the rare occasion when she does face a real crisis, she can respond appropriately – without her system overreacting.
In her words,
“It’s like my brain finally got the memo that not every moment of my life is an emergency.”
Discovering the Power of True Systemic Healing from Trauma
Carly’s story is one of many, but it highlights the profound, systemic changes that Embodied Neurofeedback offers.
It’s not about managing symptoms or patching things up temporarily—it’s about creating lasting change at the deepest levels of the brain and nervous system.
How to Decide What’s Right for You: EMDR Therapy or Embodied Neurofeedback
So, here’s the bottom line:
✔️ If your struggles feel tied to a specific traumatic event and you’re ready to recall and process those memories, EMDR may be a good fit.
✔️ If you’ve already tried EMDR and found it helpful but still feel like something deeper is unresolved, Embodied Neurofeedback could be the next step.
✔️ Or if you believe your challenges may be more systemic—ongoing anxiety, chronic stress, physical symptoms—or you’re not ready to revisit memories, Embodied Neurofeedback is designed to meet you where you are.
If Carly’s story resonates with you or you’re ready for a comprehensive approach that combines Neurofeedback, somatic techniques, and nervous system regulation to help your brain and body work better as a whole, I’d love to help you explore how Embodied Neurofeedback in Richmond, VA could support your journey to feeling truly calm, clear, and in control.
Whether you’re interested in finding out more about whether Embodied Neurofeedback would be a good fit for you..
or you’ve decided EMDR is the right next step and you’re looking for a list of great EMDR therapists in the Richmond, VA area…
➡️ jump on my schedule for a free, quick 20-minute chat.
Ultimately, the goal is lasting, meaningful change that reaches every part of your life, and I’m here to help you get there.
Whatever else you choose to do today…
Stay Curious! ✨
Naomi Iguchi, PhD, LCP, BCN, RYT
