Linda Smith & Northwest Mental Health Alliance: EMDR Therapy & Consultation

Linda Smith & Northwest Mental Health Alliance: EMDR Therapy & Consultation EMDR therapy and EMDRIA-certified consultation for therapists and individuals seeking trauma-informed, attachment-focused care.

Serving clients across Washington State and offering professional EMDR consultation for clinicians.

We’ve been working toward this for MONTHS… and today is a big day. ❤️Today, Northwest Mental Health Alliance has our Was...
08/28/2026

We’ve been working toward this for MONTHS… and today is a big day. ❤️

Today, Northwest Mental Health Alliance has our Washington State Department of Health inspection as part of the process of becoming a licensed Behavioral Health Agency (BHA).

This has meant months of applications, policies, procedures, paperwork, compliance requirements, facility prep, more paperwork, and approximately 47 moments of wondering why we voluntarily chose administrative suffering as a hobby. 😂

But there is a very important reason we’re doing it.

Becoming a BHA will allow us to dramatically expand who we can serve — especially people who have historically had the hardest time accessing high-quality mental health care.

People with limited incomes.
People on Medicaid.
Families who can’t afford $200 therapy sessions.
People who need trauma treatment, EMDR, counseling, crisis support, and compassionate care without finances being the thing that keeps them from getting help.

Our goal has never been to build the fanciest practice.

Our goal is to build something that actually makes excellent mental health care accessible to more people.

So today feels BIG.

Please send us all the good vibes, crossed fingers, positive energy, prayers, spells, interpretive dances, or whatever your particular belief system allows. 😂❤️

We’re ready.

And we are really, really excited about what this next chapter could mean for our community.

❤️ Northwest Mental Health Alliance

Apparently the afternoon caseload has been canceled due to a staff-wide mandatory nap. 😂🐈🐈Earl & Gray would like everyon...
08/27/2026

Apparently the afternoon caseload has been canceled due to a staff-wide mandatory nap. 😂🐈🐈

Earl & Gray would like everyone to know that Northwest Mental Health Alliance takes rest, regulation, and comfortable seating VERY seriously.

They have personally tested both chairs and can confirm they meet all applicable feline standards.

No notes. No treatment plans. No productivity goals.
Just ✨ nervous system regulation ✨.

Honestly, they may be our most committed employees.

And we saved one of the BEST for last. 🙌🧠Wrapping up a whirlwind three days at EMDRIA 2026 with a session on integrating...
08/23/2026

And we saved one of the BEST for last. 🙌🧠

Wrapping up a whirlwind three days at EMDRIA 2026 with a session on integrating EMDR therapy and Exposure & Response Prevention (ERP) for OCD….and this one is so clinically useful.

We covered how the AIP model and ERP/inhibitory-learning principles can work together: using ERP hierarchies to help inform EMDR target sequencing, future templates to rehearse response prevention, and strategies to reduce reassurance-seeking and ritualizing during reprocessing.

Especially fascinating is looking at the memory networks underneath OCD presentations involving contamination, harm, unacceptable thoughts, intolerance of uncertainty, and shame ….while still maintaining fidelity to both EMDR and ERP.

Three packed days of learning, thinking, talking about trauma, taking approximately 900 photos of PowerPoint slides 😂, and coming home with so many new ideas to bring into our work.

Couldn’t have picked a better session to close out the conference. ❤️

Another fantastic session at EMDRIA 2026 -this one with Rachel Totten, taking a deeper look at Phase 8: Reevaluation and...
08/23/2026

Another fantastic session at EMDRIA 2026 -this one with Rachel Totten, taking a deeper look at Phase 8: Reevaluation and what she calls the “adaptive juice.” 🧠✨

Phase 8 is so much more than, “How have things been since we last met?” It’s an opportunity to slow down and notice the subtle ways adaptive information is beginning to show up: cognitively, emotionally, somatically, and relationally.

We explored how to recognize those little indicators that the client’s system is continuing to integrate and generalize change between sessions…and how easy it can be to move right past them if we’re only focused on whether the original target is still disturbing.

Sometimes the most important evidence of healing is in the seemingly small things: a different reaction, a new perspective, a change in the body, a boundary that suddenly feels possible, or realizing that something that used to trigger you… just didn’t.

Such a great reminder to notice the adaptive shifts, give them space, and let the client recognize their own healing.

Really enjoyed learning from Rachel Totten today!

One of the absolute highlights of being at EMDRIA….getting to see Thomas Zimmerman! ❤️Thomas provided our consultation a...
08/23/2026

One of the absolute highlights of being at EMDRIA….getting to see Thomas Zimmerman! ❤️

Thomas provided our consultation as we worked toward both EMDR certification and becoming EMDRIA Approved Consultants, and he is one of those people who has genuinely influenced how we practice.

He’s the creator of Four Blinks Flash, an incredible teacher, and the author of:

EMDR With Complex Trauma
and
Predictive Processing Flash: Healing Complex Trauma a Microslice at a Time

Which, naturally, meant we had to get the obligatory “author holding his books” photo. 📚😃

But what we appreciate most about Thomas is his commitment to making high-quality EMDR education accessible and affordable. He truly seems to care about getting effective tools into the hands of clinicians…without making advanced training financially out of reach.

We’re so grateful for everything we’ve learned from him over the years, and very happy to finally get an in-person photo together!

Yesterday’s EMDRIA session with Stephen Dansiger had us thinking about something we already intuitively know: music can ...
08/23/2026

Yesterday’s EMDRIA session with Stephen Dansiger had us thinking about something we already intuitively know: music can take us places. 🎶🧠

A song can bring back a person, a place, a feeling, or an entire chapter of our lives…sometimes before we’ve even consciously identified the memory.

We loved learning more about how to use music integrated into EMDR therapy, drawing on the powerful connections between music, emotion, memory, and the nervous system.

Music can evoke emotional states, activate autobiographical memories, create connections across different periods of our lives, and offer another pathway into material that may be difficult to access through words alone.

It was such a creative reminder that EMDR doesn’t have to happen only through talking about a memory. There are so many ways into the brain’s memory networks…and sometimes the doorway is a song. ❤️🎧

Thank you, Stephen Dansiger, for such an interesting and inspiring session!

This morning’s learning at the EMDRIA Conference challenged us to think bigger about what healing really means.EMDR is o...
08/22/2026

This morning’s learning at the EMDRIA Conference challenged us to think bigger about what healing really means.

EMDR is often described as a therapy for reprocessing traumatic memories…but today’s presentation invited us to broaden that lens.

Trauma doesn’t exist only in the mind. It lives within the body, attachment relationships, families, systems, communities, culture, and sometimes across generations. And healing is more than reducing symptoms.

One of our favorite distinctions from this morning:

Treatment asks: How do we reduce suffering and symptoms?
Healing asks: How do we help the whole person become well again?

We explored the neuroscience of EMDR, implicit memory, nervous-system regulation, attachment, systems theory, and the ways EMDR may restore communication between body and brain.

And perhaps our biggest takeaway came from Indigenous perspectives on trauma and healing:

Resilience isn’t necessarily something we give our clients or “install.” It is already there. Our work may be to help them reconnect with the strength, relationships, culture, community, and stories of resilience that have been there all along.

A beautiful reminder that AIP can continue to evolve without losing its foundation…and that EMDR can be about so much more than reprocessing a memory.

Tonight’s final training at the EMDRIA Conference took us deep into attachment-informed EMDR and the art of finding the ...
08/22/2026

Tonight’s final training at the EMDRIA Conference took us deep into attachment-informed EMDR and the art of finding the right target.

One of the biggest takeaways: the presenting trauma isn’t always the root of what we need to process.

We explored how attachment can serve as a lens for understanding how the nervous system got to be this way…looking beyond the obvious event to formative experiences involving rupture, lack of repair, internalized caregivers, and even intergenerational and collective experiences.

We also learned ways to “bridge” from what is happening now…a trigger, future fear, pervasive feeling, or current symptom…back to the earlier experiences that shaped its meaning.

And maybe my favorite idea of the evening:

The root formative experience doesn’t necessarily have to be traumatic.

Sometimes it’s not just about what happened. It’s about what didn’t happen…the comfort, protection, attunement, repair, or sense of safety that was needed.

Such a fascinating way to think about EMDR targeting, attachment, and the question underneath so much of our work:

How did this nervous system learn to respond this way?

A pretty fantastic way to wrap up a full day of learning at . 🧠✨

Mid-day EMDRIA conference session was Working with Survivors of Coercive Control with Jonna Fries, Erin Hwasta, and Bria...
08/21/2026

Mid-day EMDRIA conference session was Working with Survivors of Coercive Control with Jonna Fries, Erin Hwasta, and Briana Messerschmidt.

One of the biggest takeaways: coercive systems can systematically narrow a person’s autonomy …what they believe they’re allowed to think, feel, question, know, and choose.

The presenters connected this beautifully to the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model and EMDR therapy.

Survivors may leave the controlling environment while the memory networks created within it continue operating:

• Compliance still feels safer than autonomy.
• Questioning authority still feels dangerous.
• Normal emotions can trigger guilt or shame.
• Clients may continually monitor and correct themselves.
• Making even ordinary decisions can feel overwhelming.
• Identity can remain organized around who they were required to be rather than who they actually are.

What especially stood out was the emphasis on agency.

Our job as therapists isn’t to replace one authority with another or tell survivors what they should believe now. It’s to help restore their capacity to trust their own perceptions, tolerate their emotions, make independent decisions, and develop an identity based on their own values and preferences.

The second half brought all of this directly into EMDR practice…looking at what we may need to consider throughout each of the eight phases when working with survivors of cults, high-control religions, coercive relationships, trafficking, extremist groups, and other coercive environments.

Really fascinating clinical material….and definitely an area I want to keep learning more about.

What an incredible way to start the EMDRIA Conference. ❤️We loved learning from Dr. Derek Farrell during today’s keynote...
08/21/2026

What an incredible way to start the EMDRIA Conference. ❤️

We loved learning from Dr. Derek Farrell during today’s keynote and being challenged to think more expansively about what we’re actually doing when we practice EMDR.

One of our biggest takeaways: trauma is so much more than PTSD, and EMDR is so much more than symptom reduction ….or “flicky eye movements.” 😂

Dr. Farrell explored EMDR through the lens of memory, meaning, moral injury, compassion, identity, and the Adaptive Information Processing model. One idea we especially loved was his reframing of the eight phases by their function:

Mapping → Enabling → Activating → Reorganizing → Consolidating → Embodiment → Regulation → Generalizability

And perhaps our favorite question to carry back into the therapy room:

“What does this client, with this memory, at this moment, need to remain present and to process?”

So much to think about, talk about, and bring back into our clinical work and consultation.

We absolutely loved learning from Dr. Farrell today. This is the kind of training that reminds us why we love this work….and why EMDR should always keep evolving. 🧠❤️

Address

16300 Mill Creek Boulevard Ste G1
Lynnwood, WA
98036

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