May You Find Peace Named Top EMDR Therapy Practice of 2026

We have some amazing news!

May You Find Peace has been recognised by Medical Care Review as a Top EMDR Therapy Practice of 2026. The award went through a proper evaluation process, reviewed by a panel of medical experts, industry peers, and an editorial board, and it started with nominations from our own clients and community.

When we think about who this award really comes from, we think about the people who were so nervous about therapy, they almost cancelled their first appointment three times before finally walking through the door. The person who sat in complete silence for most of that first session and still came back the following week. The person who told us upfront that they didn't really believe therapy could help them, and who cried happy tears six months later. We've had people share things with us they'd never said out loud to anyone. Things they'd carried for twenty, thirty years, sometimes longer.

None of that is lost on us. Not for a second.

So, What Is EMDR Therapy?

It's one of the questions we get asked most, and we genuinely love answering it, because EMDR sounds clinical and complicated until you understand what it actually is.

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It was developed in the late 1980s to help people process traumatic memories, and the research behind it has only grown stronger over the decades since. The American Psychological Association, the World Health Organisation, and the Department of Veterans Affairs all recognise it as an evidence-based treatment. For those searching for EMDR therapists in Connecticut, knowing that context matters.

Here's how a session typically works.

Your therapist guides you to gently hold a difficult memory in mind while you follow a series of bilateral stimulations, usually side-to-side eye movements, though taps or tones are sometimes used instead.

It sounds a little odd on paper. In practice, the experience is usually much calmer than people expect. The bilateral stimulation is thought to work in a similar way to what the brain does naturally during REM sleep, helping it process memories that got lodged somewhere along the way and never fully resolved.

What people notice after a few sessions is quite hard to describe. Something that used to feel sharp and overwhelming starts to soften. A memory that would hijack your whole nervous system begins to feel more like something that happened, rather than something that's still happening to you right now. For a lot of our clients, that's the shift they'd been waiting years for.

Who Does EMDR Help?

EMDR was built for trauma, and it's very good at what it was designed for. But the people who benefit from it cover a much wider range than most realise.

We use it with clients working through PTSD, childhood trauma, grief, accidents, and the kind of chronic stress that quietly accumulates over years until the body simply can't carry it quietly anymore. And because anxiety and depression therapy so often traces back to experiences the nervous system never got a proper chance to process, EMDR sits at the heart of a lot of the work we do with clients dealing with both.

Some people come to us having already tried therapy. It helped a little, or it didn't click, or they kept going in circles without feeling like anything was actually shifting. That's not a failure on anyone's part. Some of what we carry lives below the level of language, and talking about it only reaches so far. EMDR works at a different level.

At May You Find Peace, EMDR always sits within a broader, thoughtful plan. Our therapists draw on IFS, CBT, and DBT skills depending on what each individual actually needs. Nothing here is applied without real consideration.

Why This Means So Much to Us

Laura Manderino-Martins, LPC, started May You Find Peace because she'd seen what happened when people got truly holistic, integrative care, and she wanted more people to have access to that. The practice was never going to be just a therapy office. From early on, the vision was a full team, therapists, medical professionals, a nutrition specialist, a Reiki master, a registered nurse, highly skilled administrative staff, all under one roof, all working within a holistic mindset, and all in communication with each other about the people in their care.

That setup reflects something Laura feels strongly about. A lot of people come to us having already tried to get help somewhere else. They've spoken to someone, maybe more than one person, and still feel like something hasn't shifted. Often it's because what they're carrying has a physical component nobody looked at, or a nutritional piece, or a nervous system that's been stuck in survival mode for so long it needs more than conversation to come back down. We're set up to notice, and be able to treat, at all of that.

Our EMDR therapists keep learning. That's a given for us. The clinical side of things not only comes to our providers through training, but natural skill and a drive to truly help others. The thing you can't really put in a training manual, is staying genuinely present with someone when they're engaging in the most difficult work of their life. Our providers put our whole heart into that presence, and we're proud of them for it.

We also run community outreach programs, because we're aware that the people who'd benefit most from what we offer aren't always the ones who find us easily. That's something we keep working on.

Receiving this national award, especially knowing it came from nominations by our own clients, colleagues, physicians, and fellow therapists and healthcare providers means more than we can really put into words. We're grateful. And we're nowhere near done. We will continue to learn, grow, and always aim higher to give our clients the most innovative, cutting edge, holistic, person cantered care.

We're Here, However Works Best for You

We see clients in person at our Middlebury and Southbury, CT locations, and we offer telehealth therapy across Connecticut for those who need flexibility in how they access care. Telehealth therapy in Connecticut has made starting easier for a lot of people who were unable to access care due to their location, work schedule, chronic illness, or transportation limitations, and EMDR translates well to remote sessions. The research supports it, and we've seen it ourselves.

If location or schedule has been the thing sitting between you and getting started, that's a much smaller barrier than you might think. We also accept insurance for many of our services, because we really do believe that good anxiety and depression, and trauma therapy should genuinely be within reach to every single person that needs it.

Ready to Talk?

If you've been wondering what is EMDR therapy and whether it could help you, we'd love to have that conversation. Our team works with trauma, anxiety, depression, and a lot more, and the very first step is just reaching out.

You don't need the right words. You don't need a clear explanation of what's wrong. You just need to make one small step.

Call us at 203-558-1143, book online at mayyoufindpeacellc.com, or browse our services to learn more about what we offer. We're proud of this award. And we're even prouder of what it represents.