How EMDR Intensives Can Support Autoimmune Healing: A Trauma-Informed Approach
Living with an autoimmune condition can feel like an unpredictable battle between your mind, your body, and your daily life. While medication and lifestyle changes are critical components of managing these chronic conditions, more people are exploring how healing the nervous system and addressing unresolved trauma may also reduce symptom severity and improve overall well-being.
As a licensed therapist in Florida and Alabama, I specialize in EMDR Intensives—a powerful, accelerated model of therapy that can help regulate the nervous system and support healing for individuals managing chronic stress and autoimmune disorders.
The Trauma-Autoimmune Connection
Research continues to show strong links between chronic stress, early life adversity, PTSD, and the development of autoimmune conditions like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and fibromyalgia. This article from NCBI dives into the research behind childhood stress and the link to autoimmune diseases in adulthood.
What we know is, when trauma is stored in the body, it can keep the nervous system in a chronic state of dysregulation—activating the fight, flight, or freeze response long after the actual threat has passed.
This ongoing activation can disrupt immune function, increase inflammation, and contribute to flare-ups. For many people, the body becomes the battlefield for unprocessed emotional wounds.
What Is EMDR, and Why Use an Intensive Format?
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a highly effective, research-backed therapy for trauma and anxiety. It helps the brain reprocess distressing memories, so they no longer trigger the same emotional or physiological response.
EMDR Intensives condense months of therapy into a focused, multi-hour or multi-day experience. This model allows for deeper work in a shorter amount of time, which is especially helpful for individuals managing:
Chronic illness and fatigue
Medical trauma or long diagnostic journeys
Anxiety or depression related to health challenges
Complex trauma that impacts physical health
A big influence on my decision as a practitioner to start providing EMDR intensives came from my own experience with therapy while battling an autoimmune disease. I was finally ready to start looking into past trauma and get the ball rolling, hoping it would not only be great for my mental health but also for my physical health as I tried to naturally heal my autoimmune disease. While the therapy was helpful and great, the downside was that we slowly built up to the EMDR process over weeks and weeks of building coping skills, poking around the events I needed to process, etc. During those weeks, I left therapy sessions feeling completely drained, triggered, and dysregulated. I was ready to tackle the trauma and move on and weekly 50 minute sessions were just enough time to leave me triggered but unhealed. Intensive allow the client to jump into their healing right out of the gate instead of dragging out the process over months and months.
I don’t know about you, but when I finally commit to doing something for myself, I need to act now… not months down the road.
The Nervous System, Trauma, and Autoimmune Healing
When your nervous system is stuck in survival mode, your body has a harder time resting, digesting, and healing. EMDR helps shift the nervous system out of chronic hypervigilance, giving the body a chance to access its natural healing state.
Studies in polyvagal theory and psychoneuroimmunology suggest that trauma healing can:
Reduce inflammation markers in the body (and if you have autoimmune conditions, you know how bad the inflammation can be).
Improve vagal tone (a sign of nervous system flexibility)
Decrease perceived stress and increase pain tolerance
Support immune regulation
By addressing the root of the dysregulation, clients often notice not only emotional relief, but also reduced autoimmune symptoms, better sleep, and increased energy.
Real Healing Is Mind + Body
Autoimmune conditions are complex, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution. But when you combine physical treatment with trauma-informed care, the results can be transformative. Whether you’re navigating lupus, thyroid disorders, or fibromyalgia, EMDR Intensives offer a compassionate, neuroscience-informed path toward resilience. I love talking with others about their autoimmune journey and how we can holistically approach our healing journey, reach out to me if you want to talk more about this (but be prepared for me totally nerding-out about it).
So what’s next?
As a licensed therapist in Florida and Alabama, I offer in-person and virtual EMDR Intensives tailored to your needs. You can travel to me, talk to me about me coming to you, or we can meet virtually (yes, we can do EMDR virtually, no problem!). These sessions are ideal for those who want deep healing in a focused timeframe, without the wait-and-see of traditional weekly therapy. If you’re ready to jumpstart your healing journey and help improve your overall health today, let’s talk!
