EMDR that starts where you actually are
Our PTSD program is built on Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, delivered in a structure that prioritizes stabilization before any processing begins. Every session moves at the pace your nervous system can actually tolerate.
Phases 1–2 first
Stabilization before processing, always
EMDR-adherent
Full eight-phase protocol in individual therapy
9–15 hrs / week
Cincinnati · Dayton · Indianapolis
Group is Phase 2-forward. Index trauma reprocessing occurs in individual EMDR therapy.
What makes this program different
The full model, in a format that is clinically safe
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is a first-line treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder endorsed by the World Health Organization, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Our program follows the full eight-phase Adaptive Information Processing model. Group sessions concentrate on Phases 1 and 2, stabilization and resourcing. Individual therapy is where deeper reprocessing takes place.
Group EMDR built for complex trauma
In a heterogeneous IOP group, clients with different trauma histories, different stabilization levels, and different dissociation risk, uncontrolled group trauma processing creates more harm than benefit. Our group protocol deliberately does not ask clients to process their worst memory together. Group builds the stabilization and resourcing foundation that makes deeper processing safe, whether that happens in individual therapy here or in outpatient care afterward.
We work with the hard cases
Trauma that has not responded to prior treatment often needs more than standard stabilization. Our team integrates EMDR-informed group work with individual EMDR therapy, somatic approaches, and, where clinically indicated, medication management and interventional psychiatry. We don't give up on complex presentations. We adjust the approach until something works.
Comprehensive care, every week
Every client receives the full set of treatment components, daily group sessions that build stabilization and resourcing, individual therapy where deeper processing occurs, and psychiatric and family support that sustains recovery.
Daily group sessions (3 hrs)
Three sequential 60-minute blocks every session day, somatic stabilization first, EMDR resourcing and trigger work second, narrative integration third. The sequence mirrors the EMDR phase structure intentionally.
Individual therapy (weekly)
Weekly 1:1 sessions with a dedicated EMDR-trained therapist. Index trauma reprocessing, the full eight-phase protocol, takes place here, outside the group setting, calibrated precisely to each client's stabilization level.
Medication management (weekly)
Psychiatric check-ins for clients where pharmacotherapy is part of the plan. First-line medications for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder are coordinated with the EMDR treatment team to expand the window of tolerance for trauma work.
Family therapy & support
Family therapy is available and often clinically important. Close supports are frequently secondary trauma carriers who benefit from psychoeducation about trauma responses and how to support recovery without reinforcing avoidance.
Stabilization first, then processing
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing uses bilateral stimulation, side-to-side eye movements, auditory tones, or tactile tapping, to help the brain reprocess traumatic memories that are stored in a fragmented, intrusive form. The underlying framework, Adaptive Information Processing, holds that trauma overwhelms the brain's natural memory integration system. EMDR restores that process.
What makes TAC's program adherent is sequencing. EMDR has eight phases, and the evidence base is built on working through them in order. In a group with clients at different stabilization levels, moving too quickly into Phase 4 trauma reprocessing creates real clinical risk. Our group protocol stays in Phases 1 and 2. Index trauma processing belongs in individual therapy, where pace is calibrated precisely to the individual.
Phases 1–2: Where group focuses
History-taking, psychoeducation, stabilization skill-building, and resource installation. Clients develop a safe or calm place, a container resource, and bilateral stimulation familiarity before any trigger-level work begins.
Resource installation
Bilateral stimulation strengthens positive memories, adaptive beliefs, and internal capacities, a safe place, a protective figure, a moment of resilience, a future-self template. These are EMDR-protocol resources that directly support later reprocessing, not just coping tools.
Trigger processing (recent, not index trauma)
When clients are ready for processing work, targets are recent triggers, trauma reminders from the past week, low-to-moderate intensity current material. Subjective Units of Distress ratings are kept at 6 or below. No targeting of worst memories in group. Full closure before every session ends.
Individual EMDR for deeper processing
Full Phases 3–8, target assessment, desensitization, installation of adaptive beliefs, body scan, and closure, take place in individual therapy. The group stabilization work is designed to feed directly into this individual processing.
The eight phases of EMDR
Where the group protocol fits
Understanding trauma history and identifying targets.
Psychoeducation, bilateral stimulation introduction, resource installation. Primary group focus.
Identifying the image, cognitions, emotion, and body sensation for each target.
Bilateral stimulation sets with free association until distress resolves.
Strengthening the adaptive belief that replaces the negative cognition.
Checking for residual somatic disturbance.
Returning to equilibrium. Includes containment if target is incompletely processed.
Reviewing progress and identifying remaining targets at the next session.
What happens in each block
Mindfulness & Somatic Stabilization
Build the nervous system regulation capacity that makes all other trauma work safe.
Trauma dysregulates the nervous system at a physiological level. Before any cognitive or EMDR work is possible, clients need to develop sufficient somatic awareness and regulation to stay within the window of tolerance, the zone of arousal where the brain can process rather than just react. Session practices include orienting exercises, titrated body scanning, grounding sequences, and the Butterfly Hug, a portable bilateral self-regulation technique clients can use between sessions.
EMDR Resourcing & Trigger Processing
Install EMDR resources and, when ready, process recent triggers at contained intensity.
The first half of this session focuses on resource installation using bilateral stimulation, a safe or calm place, a container, a figure of protection or wisdom, a future-self template. The second half uses a structured worksheet to process a recent trigger, not the index trauma, with short bilateral stimulation sets interspersed with grounding checks. Subjective Units of Distress above 6 redirect to resourcing only. Every session ends with full closure, containment, grounding, and a between-session plan.
Narrative Integration & Recovery Planning
Build a coherent, forward-looking account of the trauma experience and recovery trajectory.
Session content rotates across psychoeducation about trauma memory, cognitive work on stuck points such as self-blame and permanence beliefs, timeline work that strengthens the then-versus-now distinction, and Future Template installation, using bilateral stimulation to build a body-based sense of handling previously feared situations. Clients do not need to disclose detailed trauma content in this group.
What a week looks like
Hover any session to see what happens in that block.
Therapy
If any of this sounds familiar, we can help
The presentations we see range from single-incident trauma to complex developmental trauma to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder co-occurring with depression, anxiety, or OCD. Many clients have tried prior treatment. EMDR is effective even when other approaches have not been.
- Intrusive re-experiencing, flashbacks, nightmares, memories that feel present-tense
- Persistent avoidance of trauma-related thoughts, feelings, people, or places
- Negative beliefs about self or world, emotional numbing, detachment from others
- Hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, sleep disruption
- Significant impairment in daily functioning
EMDR is a first-line, guideline-recommended treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Our program follows the full eight-phase protocol in individual therapy, with group sessions building the stabilization capacity that makes index-trauma reprocessing safe.
- Intrusive memories, flashbacks, or nightmares beginning within days of a traumatic event
- Dissociative symptoms including depersonalization or derealization
- Marked hyperarousal and sleep disruption
- Avoidance of trauma-related stimuli
- Significant distress within one month of the event
Early EMDR-informed stabilization can prevent Acute Stress Disorder from consolidating into full Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Individual EMDR therapy can begin modified reprocessing once stabilization is established.
- OCD or anxiety worsened or precipitated by trauma
- Intrusive thoughts that are ego-dystonic but trauma-seeded
- Hypervigilance overlapping between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and anxiety presentations
- Panic triggered by trauma reminders
- Compulsive behaviors rooted in trauma-related threat appraisal
The PTSD + Anxiety hybrid track runs the EMDR protocol on primary days and structured Exposure and Response Prevention on secondary days. Stabilization comes before exposure, the clinical team coordinates both components so they reinforce rather than destabilize each other.
- Intense, rapidly shifting emotional states or chronic emotional numbness
- Pervasive shame and sense of being permanently damaged
- Difficulty trusting others or maintaining stable relationships
- Chronic somatic symptoms, pain, fatigue, physical complaints without clear medical cause
- Dissociation ranging from mild derealization to more significant disconnection
Complex trauma requires a stabilization-first approach, extended time in Phases 1 and 2 before any Phase 4 processing begins. The group protocol is specifically designed for this population: resources installed, dissociation risk managed, and no index-trauma processing in the group setting.
- Depressive episodes precipitated or maintained by trauma-related loss, guilt, or shame
- Persistent low mood alongside intrusive trauma symptoms
- Behavioral withdrawal and isolation
- Hopelessness rooted in trauma-specific beliefs
- Suicidal ideation tied to self-blame
Our PTSD + Mood hybrid track addresses both dimensions, EMDR trauma work on primary days and DBT/Behavioral Activation on secondary days. For clients with active suicidal ideation, interventional psychiatry including Spravato and ketamine is available on-site.
- Pervasive guilt and self-condemnation tied to acts committed, witnessed, or failed to prevent
- Spiritual or existential crisis following events that violated core beliefs
- Anger or betrayal directed at self, institutions, or others
- Withdrawal from relationships and sources of meaning
- Difficulty with forgiveness, of others or of oneself
Moral injury is not the same as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, it involves a rupture in the moral framework, not a conditioned fear response. EMDR's cognitive processing components and the Narrative Integration group are both well-suited to the stuck points of guilt, responsibility, and meaning.
When the body needs support too
For clients with severe hyperarousal, treatment-resistant depression co-occurring with trauma, or active suicidal ideation, medication and interventional psychiatry can meaningfully expand the window of tolerance that makes EMDR possible.
Why it matters for trauma
SSRIs and SNRIs are first-line pharmacological treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Coordinated alongside EMDR, they reduce the baseline hyperarousal that narrows the window of tolerance for trauma processing. They do not replace EMDR, they create better conditions for it.
For clients with trauma-related depression that has not responded to standard pharmacotherapy, Spravato and intravenous ketamine offer a rapid alternative. Both produce antidepressant effects, and in the case of Spravato, demonstrated antisuicidal effects, within hours to days. For someone whose depression is blocking all trauma work, this can be the intervention that finally creates an opening.
Accelerated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and theta burst stimulation target cortical circuits involved in trauma-related depression and anxiety, providing a non-medication path for clients who cannot tolerate or have not responded to pharmacotherapy.
What's available at TAC
Medication management
Weekly check-ins with prescribers specializing in trauma-related disorders. SSRIs, SNRIs, and prazosin for nightmares are coordinated directly with the EMDR treatment team.
Spravato (esketamine)
FDA-approved intranasal esketamine for treatment-resistant depression and Major Depressive Disorder with active suicidal ideation. Administered in-office under FDA protocol; antisuicidal effects observed within 24 hours in clinical trials.
Intravenous ketamine
Rapid-acting treatment for treatment-resistant depression when multiple prior medication trials have been inadequate. Particularly useful when fast symptom relief is needed before EMDR processing can safely begin.
Accelerated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
Compressed TMS protocol delivering the therapeutic dose over days rather than weeks. Scheduled around IOP attendance without disrupting the treatment week.
Theta Burst Stimulation
High-frequency TMS variant delivering a full session in approximately three minutes. Equivalent outcomes to standard TMS with significantly compressed treatment timelines.
Your questions answered
Both, depending on where in the program. Individual EMDR therapy sessions follow the full eight-phase protocol, the one the evidence base is built on, conducted by EMDR-trained therapists. Group sessions are EMDR-informed: they use Phases 1 and 2 procedures, bilateral stimulation for resource installation, and a structured trigger-processing protocol. They do not run full index-trauma reprocessing in the group setting, which is a clinical safety decision, not a limitation. Uncontrolled group trauma processing in a heterogeneous IOP is a liability. The group does what group EMDR does best; individual therapy does the deeper work.
Because it is not clinically safe to do so in a heterogeneous group. Clients have different trauma histories, stabilization levels, and dissociation risk. Full index-trauma processing in that context risks destabilization, unfinished material at session end, and retraumatization. The group targets recent triggers and low-to-moderate intensity current material only. Index trauma processing belongs in individual therapy where pace can be precisely calibrated.
The window of tolerance is the zone of nervous system activation in which processing is possible, neither overwhelmed nor shut down. Trauma processing only works within this window. Outside it, bilateral stimulation activates material without processing it, which can worsen symptoms. The opening somatic stabilization block exists specifically to bring clients into their window before any processing begins.
No. Every group session is structured so clients work with their own material privately, on worksheets, with their own internal imagery and body sensations, without disclosing detailed trauma content to the group. The Narrative Integration block involves discussion of themes and stuck points, not details of traumatic events. Clients are never asked to share more than they choose to.
The leading theory is Adaptive Information Processing, developed by Francine Shapiro. Traumatic memories are stored in a fragmented form that intrudes into present experience because the brain's normal memory integration system was overwhelmed. Bilateral stimulation appears to re-engage that system, allowing the memory to integrate into ordinary autobiographical memory and lose its present-tense emotional charge. The precise neurological mechanism is still studied, but the clinical evidence base is among the strongest in trauma treatment.
We are in-network with most major commercial insurance plans and accept Medicaid in Ohio and Indiana. Interventional treatments including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Spravato have variable coverage, our intake team verifies all benefits before the first appointment so there are no surprises.
They are designed as a single coordinated system. Stabilization and resources built in group directly support the deeper processing that happens in individual sessions, clients arrive with more regulation capacity and more installed resources. The individual therapist is in close communication with group facilitators so both components are working from the same clinical picture.
Every session begins with a brief distress and dissociation screen. Clients who are too activated redirect to resourcing only and do not participate in trigger processing that day. Facilitators monitor for window of tolerance loss throughout and can redirect any individual at any point. Every session ends with full closure, containment, grounding, distress check, and a between-session plan. No one leaves with unresolved material open.
We aim for same-week assessments in most cases. Call us at (513) 547-2861 or submit the intake form online. Our admissions team will follow up within one business day.
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