EMDR Therapy in Raleigh, North Carolina | Working With Sara Forcella

Sara Forcella

Sep 22

3 min read

Maybe you’ve heard about EMDR from a friend, another therapist, or someone on social media. You’re interested, but you also have questions. What actually happens in sessions?

Will we immediately start talking about the hardest things you’ve experienced? What if you get overwhelmed?

And probably the biggest question: would I feel comfortable doing this with this person?

I’m Sara Forcella, LCSW, an EMDRIA-Certified EMDR Therapist based in Raleigh, North Carolina. I work with adults navigating relational trauma, attachment wounds, and complex trauma, offering virtual EMDR therapy throughout North Carolina and in-person options in Raleigh.

Here’s what I want you to know about working with me.

We Start With You and What You Want to Change

You don’t need to come to your first session with a perfectly organized trauma history or know which memory you want to work on.

Maybe you know that conflict sends you spiraling. You feel responsible for everyone else’s emotions. You can recognize an unhealthy relationship but still struggle to leave it. Or you understand why you react the way you do, but that understanding hasn’t changed how it feels.

That gives us somewhere to begin.

I want to understand what brings you to therapy, how it affects your life now, and what you would like to experience differently. Together, we can begin connecting the experiences you’ve had with the patterns you’re noticing today.

My Background Is in Relational and Attachment Trauma

My work focuses on experiences like childhood sexual abuse, relationship violence, and growing up in emotionally immature, inconsistent or narcissistic family systems.

Sometimes people come in knowing they’ve experienced trauma. Other people wonder whether that word even applies to them.

You don’t have to convince me that your experiences were “bad enough” for us to take their impact seriously.

I’m interested in what you learned about yourself and relationships through those experiences. Whether your needs mattered. Whether saying no felt possible. Whether closeness came with conditions.

Those are things I want to understand as we plan our work together.

We Prepare for EMDR Together

Starting EMDR therapy doesn’t mean we immediately begin reprocessing your most painful memory.

Part of our work is understanding what helps you stay present, what happens when you become overwhelmed, and what support you need before we move forward.

I integrate EMDR with relational and attachment-focused therapy, IFS-informed parts work, and somatic approaches. That might mean noticing what happens in your body, getting curious about conflicting feelings, or finding ways to feel more connected to the room when something feels intense.

You don’t have to arrive already knowing how to do any of that.

You Don’t Have to Be “Good” at Therapy

You’re allowed to tell me something isn’t helping. You’re allowed to disagree, ask questions, or say you need to stop.

And if those things are hard to say, I want us to make room for that, too.

Especially if you’ve spent years accommodating other people, I don’t want therapy to become another place where you feel responsible for getting everything right.

We can have a treatment plan and still pay attention to what you need in the moment.

Our Goals Connect to Your Everyday Life

What would you like to be different outside of our sessions?

Maybe you want to express a need without spending the rest of the day questioning yourself. Feel more present with your partner. Make a decision without asking five people whether it’s okay. Or remember something painful without feeling completely pulled back into it.

Those goals help guide our work. Everyone’s process is different, and we’ll keep checking in about what is changing and what still needs attention.