You know exactly why you react the way you do.
Something small can set it off.
The feeling shows up at its original strength anyway. Your distress is sitting in your emotional brain, holding a charge. You’ve talked about it a lot, but you still haven’t resolved the charge.”
The thinking part of your brain got the message years ago – whatever happened is behind you, and you don’t need to feel like this anymore. However, the emotional part of your brain (the limbic system) never got the memo. Those emotions can still be easily triggered when something reminds you of them.
The emotional part of your brain can respond to a targeted intervention using eye position, color, and light to release these old emotions.
This is the channel Emotional Transformation Therapy uses: your visual field. EMDR reaches emotional material through the visual field, too. ETT approaches it differently, in a way that is more effective and gentler for the client.
Dr. Stephen Vazquez, PhD, built ETT around a profound observation: Every color carries a wavelength. So does every emotion. When the two are matched, the charge has a route out.
Your eyes have to be positioned so that the region of your brain that holds that emotion is accessible, and the color in front of you has to match the wavelength of the emotion itself.
Distressing emotional content processes quickly when these things line up.
I trained directly with Dr. Vazquez in Texas and completed advanced certification in ETT.
ETT holds four distinct sub-modalities. I choose which is most appropriate in the moment for the topic we are working on. With four modalities to choose from, I can regulate the intensity of the session, so we continue to make progress without it being overwhelming for the client.
Brainspotting is the other approach I work with. Some sessions call for that instead.
Some emotional content is entirely pushed out of conscious reach. Your conscious mind has no record of it. The charge on it is still live. It surfaces when something in the present resembles the original event.
Dissociated material is where ETT does some of its clearest work.
Prolonged grief answers to the same thing.
I’ve sat with people whose spouse died a decade ago and whose grief still carries the charge it had in the first week.
Old emotional content still holding its charge is what this approach reaches.
The first thing some people may notice is feeling a little disoriented.
You’ve been organized around the feeling long enough that its absence takes getting used to. A new vision of your life has to get built. We’ll build it together.
Then things start opening.
Your relationships change when you’re not reacting out of something that happened years ago. Your thinking clears when fear of failure isn’t the thing driving it. Things get fun again. Your sense of humor comes back before you notice it left.
That’s what I’ve watched happen once the emotional weight you’ve had on board all these years has been processed.
Many people are familiar with EMDR, but few have heard of ETT yet. These two operate on a similar foundation of using the visual field to access stored emotion; however, there are significant differences between them. I have found that ETT often works where EMDR has not or has only brought partial improvement. If EMDR hasn’t been helpful for you yet, don’t give up. There’s another way…
| Category | EMDR | ETT |
|---|---|---|
| Preparation Phase | Could require several sessions, or even several months of sessions, to work on “resourcing” and nervous system regulation practice before trauma processing can begin. | No lengthy starting/resourcing phase required. Trauma processing can often begin in the very first session. |
| Speed of Results | Progress is typically slow – stabilization alone can take 8–12+ sessions before addressing the core trauma. | Clients frequently experience meaningful, measurable shifts within the first few sessions. |
| Gentleness | Can be highly activating. Clients may experience significant distress and emotional flooding during processing. | Notably gentler on the nervous system. The light modulates emotional intensity in real-time, reducing overwhelm. |
| Visual Stimulation | Uses back-and-forth bilateral eye movements (or tapping/sounds) as the primary mechanism. | Uses specific wavelengths of light and color targeted at the visual field – a more direct pathway to the limbic system. |
| Therapist Role | The EMDR therapist follows a structured, step-by-step protocol with limited flexibility during processing sets. | Highly interactive – the ETT therapist adjusts the light stimulus in real-time based on your moment-to-moment response. |
| Scope of Issues | Primarily designed for PTSD and single-incident trauma, however, it is now being used more broadly for a wider array of symptoms. | Addresses a wide range of symptoms: trauma, anxiety, depression, phobias, OCD, grief, chronic pain, and peak performance. |
| Session Format | Can be adapted for telehealth using bilateral audio or on-screen visual cues. | Most effective in person, where one of four ETT modalities is used that allows for direct engagement with specific wavelengths of color while processing challenging emotions. Telehealth is possible in some circumstances. |
Before you book anything, there’s a free 15-minute phone call. We’ll talk about what you want changed.
If ETT fits that goal, we’ll start there.
Reach me at (910) 502-3339 and we’ll set the goal together.
You’ve waited long enough for your feelings to catch up to your understanding.
Email me and we’ll find a time to connect by phone for a free 15-minute consultation. You’ll get to know me a little, and we can both tell whether we’re a good fit for this work.
Emotional Transformation Therapy for adults and teens 14+ in Raleigh, North Carolina, and online across the state.
A sentence or two is plenty.
