EMDR & Addiction Recovery
You’ve made meaningful changes in your relationship with alcohol or other substances… but now, life is challenging you in new ways.
Long-term recovery often brings out questions you couldn’t make room for before: Which relationships feel supportive? What do you want from life now? How do you take responsibility for the past without continuing to punish yourself?
I offer space to explore these questions alongside the practical challenges of daily life. Our work can focus on understanding persistent patterns, developing self-trust, and finding ways of living and relating that feel more sustainable.
What we might work on
Depending on what brings you to therapy, we might explore:
Self-criticism, shame, and the pressure to prove that you’re doing well.
Overworking, perfectionism, or difficulty resting without guilt.
Boundaries, closeness, and asking for support in relationships.
Responding to stress and urges with greater awareness and more choices.
Routines that support your needs without becoming another measure of your worth.
Identity, meaning, and what you want your life to include as recovery evolves.
You may already understand a great deal about your patterns from previous therapy or recovery work. We can build on that understanding and pay attention to the moments when knowing what you need doesn’t yet make it easier to respond differently.
How I work
My approach brings together trauma-informed psychotherapy, EMDR training, mindfulness and contemplative experience, and attention to relationships. We’ll look at what is happening in your life now, what you’ve already tried, and what you want help understanding or changing.
In practice, this might mean slowing down a moment when you feel compelled to say yes, noticing what made a difficult conversation linger, or exploring what happens when you try to relax. We can work with practical coping skills while also making room for questions that don’t have quick answers.
Mindfulness can be part of this work when it feels useful to you: noticing an urge, emotion, or familiar judgment with curiosity, then considering how you want to respond. We can also explore self-compassion, including what makes it difficult to offer yourself.
When past experiences remain distressing or seem relevant to present difficulties, we can discuss whether EMDR fits your needs and readiness. We’ll stay curious about the different influences on your experience, including current stress, relationships, and the expectations you’re trying to meet.
My approach is neurodiversity-affirming. If attention, sensory needs, masking, or differences in energy are part of your experience, we can consider them when exploring coping strategies and expectations.
Room for different recovery paths
My background includes work in harm reduction settings. I welcome conversations about different approaches to recovery, including 12-step communities, Buddhist recovery communities such as Recovery Dharma and Refuge Recovery, and the role of other supports in your life.
There is also room here for spiritual and philosophical questions: belief or doubt, forgiveness, belonging, responsibility, and what makes life meaningful. You do not need a particular spiritual framework to work with me. Together, we can explore what supports you, what feels complicated, and where your needs or values may be changing.
Working together
I’m Sydney Faith Rose, LCSW. I offer private-pay virtual psychotherapy for adults in New York, with a focus on the emotional and relational aspects of recovery. Our work can sit alongside recovery communities, medical treatment, or other supports already in your life.
An initial consultation is an opportunity to discuss what brings you here, what you’re hoping to work on, and whether my approach fits your needs.
Learn to relax your central nervous system using skills for reducing stress and managing intense emotions.
Create a routine for strengthening your executive functioning skills by planning your day and week in a way that supports your recovery and wellbeing.
Identify a support system and grow your community of people who support your recovery and personal growth.
Cultivate a daily practice that includes creative arts, reflective journaling, and mindfulness.
Envision what a recovered and empowered life looks and feels like for you.
Develop a felt sense of what would be different.
Work towards goals that make life worth living.
Break that vision into small, achievable tasks (SMART GOALS).
Get clear about what resources are helping you, have helped you, or could help you in the future.
Identify triggers and limiting beliefs: what’s getting in the way of your recovery?
Pick 3-5 daily practices that you know and can do on your own, and make them a consistent part of your life
Work through peer relationship struggles and get confident reaching out instead of engaging in avoidance behaviors
We may also use our time together to proactively discuss other plans, contemplative practices, and personal or philosophical challenges or orientations in recovery. If you’d like to discuss more about EMDR in addiction recovery, please schedule a free consultation call.
Insurance
While I do not participate as an in-network insurance provider, many my clients are reimbursed by their insurance providers on an out-of-network basis, and some are covered at in-network rates. I can help you find out exactly how much will be covered in our consult call.
Payment Options: Cash, Check, Health Savings Account, PayPal
