What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Medical Trauma And How EMDR Therapy Can Help

When we hear the word "trauma," we often think of acute events: car accidents, assaults, natural disasters. But trauma also happens in examination rooms, Zoom appointments, and waiting areas. It happens quietly, often without language to name it. Medical trauma is real, complex, and far more common than we talk about.

Whether it’s a misdiagnosis, a dehumanizing interaction with a provider, or a terrifying health crisis, medical trauma can leave lasting emotional scars. And for many, the experience isn’t just frightening; it’s shaming, silencing, and systemically reinforced.

Let's unpack the often-ignored layers of medical trauma and explore how EMDR therapy (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) can help you process what happened. You can reclaim your relationship with your body and your care with the right support.

Daniella Mohazab, AMFT

Daniella works with many types of trauma, including medical trauma, using EMDR therapy. Daniella offers a steady and compassionate presence to guide you through the challenging and rewarding work of trauma therapy. She emphasizes a strong preparation phase so you don’t feel overwhelmed by processing. She sees people physically located in California.

Alexis Harney, LMFT

Alexis helps people heal traumas big and small using a resourcing-heavy approach to EMDR therapy. Alexis is an EMDR specialist with a particular talent for working with complex trauma and attachment trauma. Her superpower is helping people feel safe in their body again after medical trauma.

The Trauma of Not Knowing What’s Happening With Your Body

One of the most distressing aspects of medical trauma is the feeling of being out of control in your own body. Symptoms arise seemingly out of nowhere. Test results are confusing, normal, or inconclusive. You may go from specialist to specialist, each with a different opinion, and no one offering certainty or relief.

Living in a state of medical limbo—where nothing feels safe or predictable—can be deeply destabilizing. It can trigger anxiety, hypervigilance, and a fractured sense of self. You may feel like your body is betraying you, or like you're constantly waiting for the next disaster.

This kind of fear doesn't always go away when the crisis ends. Even when the body heals, the nervous system may stay stuck in survival mode. That's trauma.

The Trauma of Not Being Believed

For many, especially women, people of color, disabled individuals, trans people, and people in larger bodies, not being believed by medical providers is its own form of trauma.

You may have:

• Been told your pain was “in your head”

• Had symptoms dismissed or minimized

• Been pressured into unwanted procedures or denied ones you asked for

• Felt invisible or dehumanized during examinations 

The emotional injury isn’t just about poor bedside manner. It’s about systemic bias and neglect. When your truth is questioned by the very people who are supposed to help you, it chips away at your sense of safety, worth, and trust.

The Difficulty of Managing Complex Conditions in a Siloed System

For those living with chronic or complex health conditions, the healthcare system itself can become a source of ongoing trauma.

You see one provider for your pain, another for your hormones, a third for your mental health, and none of them are talking to each other. You're the translator, the advocate, the coordinator, and often the one making sense of conflicting recommendations. Being your own medical case manager is exhausting and can be traumatic. When your symptoms don’t fit neatly into a single diagnosis, or when each doctor only sees a sliver of the whole picture, it can feel like you’re the problem. The problem is the system, but it doesn't always feel that way.

• This fragmentation adds another layer of emotional distress:

• Exhaustion from repeating your story over and over

• Fear of being misunderstood, misdiagnosed, or dismissed again

• Isolation from the lack of a cohesive care team

• Distrust in a system that feels broken, especially when your body doesn’t behave "by the book"

For many, this isn’t just frustrating, it’s traumatic. You're navigating a deeply personal health issue in a system that wasn’t designed to hold complexity or nuance.

EMDR therapy offers a space where you don’t have to compartmentalize. You can bring your full story, your fear and anger, your grief and exhaustion. We hold it together so you don’t have to hold it alone.

Medical Trauma and the Nervous System

Medical trauma doesn’t always look like a textbook PTSD response, but it lives in the body in powerful ways:

• Flashbacks during routine appointments

• Panic at the smell of antiseptic or the sight of a white coat

• Dissociation during procedures

• Avoidance of care, even when you really need it

Over time, these responses can interfere with your ability to access ongoing care. You may avoid follow-ups, suppress symptoms, or delay screenings to protect yourself from re-experiencing harm.

The body keeps the score, as they say. For people with medical trauma, that scorecard can shape the way you experience health, illness, and trust in others.

The Intersection of Bias and Medical Harm

We can't talk about medical trauma without naming its intersectional dimensions. Research continues to show that:

• Black women are significantly more likely to die in childbirth than white women.

• People in larger bodies often face delayed diagnoses because of weight stigma.

• LGBTQ+ patients frequently report discrimination and alienation in clinical settings.

• Women’s pain is less likely to be taken seriously or treated adequately.

These patterns aren’t just unfortunate, they’re traumatic. And they compound over time, especially when you’ve grown up in systems that already taught you your body was “too much” or “not enough.”

When Insurance Becomes Its Own Kind of Trauma

For many, the trauma of a medical experience doesn’t end in the hospital or the exam room. It follows them into phone calls with insurance companies, denial letters, surprise bills, and the fear of not being able to afford care.

Insurance-driven healthcare creates an environment where cost, not compassion, dictates treatment. You may have experienced:

• Denials for procedures your doctor recommended

• Delays in care because pre-approvals were required

• Being forced to “fail first” at cheaper medications before gaining access to what actually works

• Surprise bills for out-of-network providers you didn’t know you were seeing

• Pressure to rush through appointments because your provider is overbooked and under-reimbursed

These systemic issues erode your trust in providers, in the system, and sometimes even in your own worthiness of care. It’s hard to advocate for yourself when the system seems designed to wear you down. For those already managing complex conditions or previous trauma, this adds an invisible weight to every healthcare interaction.

The result? Many people begin to associate care with harm, help with stress, and health with financial fear. That’s trauma.

In therapy, especially EMDR therapy, we can work on:

• The helplessness and rage that come from insurance-related obstacles

• The internalized belief that you don’t “deserve” help unless it’s cheap or easy

• The fear of seeking future care due to cost or past insurance trauma

You deserve support that sees the whole picture, not just your symptoms, but the systems you've had to fight through just to be heard.

In our practice there will never be surprise fees or out-of-pocket costs. We are transparent in our pricing (our scale is from $175-275 per weekly session) and our cancellation policy (24 hours). You can stop sessions at any time.

How EMDR Therapy Can Help Heal Medical Trauma

EMDR therapy was originally developed to treat combat PTSD, but its applications go far beyond combat and disaster. It’s especially well-suited to medical trauma.

In EMDR, we work to:

• Identify the core moments where you felt powerless, afraid, or silenced

• Desensitize the emotional charge of those memories

• Reprocess them with the help of bilateral stimulation (like eye movements or tapping)

• Install new beliefs that support healing, trust, and safety

You do get to rewrite how it lives in your body and nervous system.

Over time, EMDR therapy can help you:

• Reconnect with your body in a safe way

• Reduce panic, avoidance, or hypervigilance around medical care

• Restore a sense of agency and choice

• Approach future care with more clarity and less fear

You Deserve to Feel Safe in Your Body and in Your Care

Medical trauma can leave you feeling isolated, ashamed, or even “crazy.” But your pain is real, even if it happened in a fluorescent-lit room where no one noticed you flinch.

We support clients who are dealing with the aftermath of traumatic or dehumanizing medical experiences. Whether you’re managing chronic illness, preparing for an upcoming procedure, or trying to trust your body again, EMDR therapy can help.

EMDR Therapy For Medical Trauma in California, Florida, and Beyond

Let’s start with a conversation. No call centers, no administrators - our consultations are directly with one of our EMDR therapists. Schedule a free consultation to see if working with one of our EMDR therapists might be a good fit. You are in control here, and if you don't feel good about your therapist match, you don't have to continue. You shouldn't have to replicate feelings of not being in control, particularly in therapy.

Schedule a consultation and start your journey toward a healthier, less smothering relationship.