Emily McCoy (she/her & he/him)

Trauma has a way of reorganizing everything, how you see yourself, how safe the world feels, how much you trust your own reactions. A lot of people come in having spent years managing symptoms without anyone helping them make sense of where they came from. We'll go at a pace that feels workable for you, using approaches like EMDR and IFS that are designed to actually move things rather than just talk around them.

A lot of autistic adults I work with have spent years being told they're too much, too sensitive, or just somehow wrong. Many have gone undiagnosed until adulthood and are still untangling what that means. My approach is neurodiversity affirming, which means I'm not here to help you mask better. I'm here to help you understand yourself, reduce burnout, and figure out what actually works for you.

Anxiety makes a lot of sense when you look at where it came from. That doesn't make it easier to live with, but it changes how we work with it. Rather than treating anxiety as something to eliminate, we'll get curious about what it's doing and what it needs. Most people find that when they stop fighting it, there's more room to actually move.

IFS gives us a way to understand the different parts of you that can seem to be working against each other, the part that shuts down, the part that pushes too hard, the part that's been carrying something painful for a long time. I've been integrating IFS into my work as an art therapist for years, which means I bring a creative, embodied lens to it that goes beyond talk-based approaches. We're not trying to get rid of parts of you. We're trying to understand what they need.

EMDR is one of the most well-researched approaches we have for trauma, and I use it because it works at a level that talking alone often can't reach. I'm trained in EMDR and have used it extensively with people navigating complex trauma, anxiety, and PTSD. It helps the nervous system reprocess experiences that got stuck rather than just building insight around them. I integrate it alongside other approaches depending on where you are in the work and what feels right for you.

I'm a Board Certified Art Therapist, one of the highest credentials in the field, which means art therapy isn't an add-on for me, it's the foundation of my clinical training. I've spent years using creative process to help people access and express things that are hard to put into words. It's especially useful for trauma, dissociation, and people who have spent a lot of time in their heads and less time connected to their bodies. You don't need to be artistic. You just need to be willing.