Cairn Center for EMDR

08/12/2026

08/10/2026

We teach people how to read.

How to write.

How to pass exams, get jobs, manage money, drive cars.

But one of the most important skills a person can learn is rarely taught:

How to regulate themselves when life gets hard.

How to sit with anger without it boiling over.

How to experience anxiety without immediately spiralling.

How to handle conflict without shutting down.

How to feel uncomfortable without needing to escape, numb, distract or self-destruct.

Because emotional regulation isn’t about never feeling difficult emotions.

It’s about having the capacity to feel them without letting them control everything you do next.

And for many of us, nobody ever taught us how.

We learned to suppress.
Avoid.
Overthink.
People-please.
Distract ourselves.
Stay busy.
Or hold everything inside until eventually it came pouring out.

That’s why learning to regulate your nervous system can change so much more than how “calm” you feel.

It changes how you respond to stress.

How you communicate.

How you handle conflict.

How quickly you recover when something knocks you down.

And how safe you can feel inside your own body.

That’s exactly why I created my 30-Day Nervous System Reset.

30 days of simple, practical exercises designed to help you lower chronic stress, regulate your nervous system and build the skills many of us were never taught growing up.

Comment “RESET” and I’ll send it to you.

08/09/2026

Beginning to use EMDR with clients can feel both exciting and intimidating. Of course you have questions, second-guess yourself, or wonder whether you’re “doing it right.”
As an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, I understand the learning curve and the anxiety that can come with developing confidence as an EMDR therapist. Consultation is not about performing or proving what you know. It is a place to slow down, think together, strengthen your understanding of EMDR, and develop confidence in your own clinical judgment.
You don’t need to arrive feeling confident. Consultation is one of the places where that confidence gets built!

06/10/2026

Join any time! Stroke survivors and partner/spouse/bestie/caregivers are welcome!
Questions? [email protected]

Starting in June!

06/06/2026

05/30/2026

What does healing look like for you when it doesn't "look" like progress?

The name Cairn reflects an ancient practice: stacks of stones placed along a path to guide travelers through difficult terrain. In the same spirit, the Cairn Center exists to help people find their way through the challenging landscapes of trauma, grief, and life transition — one steady step at a ...

05/30/2026

Your brain likes what it knows. Even if what it knows is stress, overthinking, pain, or constantly being on alert. Familiarity feels safer to the nervous system than change does.

That’s why healing can feel uncomfortable at first. You’re not just learning new patterns, you’re teaching your brain that unfamiliar doesn’t automatically mean unsafe. And that takes repetition, patience, and a lot of self-compassion.

05/15/2026

Neuroplasticity is often talked about like it’s a mindset exercise.

Change the thought. Repeat the affirmation. Tell yourself a better story.

And when it comes to trauma healing, we often add another layer: understand why it happened, how it shaped us, and remind ourselves that the past is not the present.

All of that is important. But when trauma is involved, healing also requires a different kind of learning: new experiences.

This is what I call a corrective experience, moments that give the nervous system something different from what trauma taught it to expect.

If neglect taught you that your needs would not be met, the corrective experience is being met with care.

If abandonment taught you that people leave when you need them most, the corrective experience is having someone stay present.

If shame taught you to hide your pain, the corrective experience is being seen without being judged.

These moments matter because they give the nervous system new information. They create a mismatch between what trauma taught the body to expect and what is actually happening now.

That mismatch is part of how healing begins to happen at the level of the brain and body.

Not all at once, or by forcing yourself to believe something you cannot yet feel. But through repeated moments of care, safety, attunement, and connection that the body can slowly begin to receive.

This is why healing is not only intellectual. It’s emotional, experiential, and relational.

And over time, repeated moments of care and connection can begin to teach the nervous system something new.

05/13/2026

Starting in June!