Is online EMDR as effective as in-person EMDR?

For most clients, yes. Virtual EMDR uses adapted forms of bilateral stimulation and has comprised roughly three-quarters of this practice's EMDR caseload since 2020. Significant dissociation is the main presentation warranting careful assessment before proceeding virtually.

I live in a small town and do not want to be seen going to therapy. Does virtual help?

Yes. In small communities, attending a local therapist's office can mean being recognized by neighbors, colleagues or acquaintances, and a local therapist may share social or professional overlap with the client. Virtual sessions remove the waiting room entirely and place the therapist outside the client's community.

Do you work with farmers and agricultural families in Vermont?

Yes. Farm work carries genuine trauma exposure including equipment injuries, livestock losses and near-misses, alongside financial pressure, weather dependence and a cultural expectation of self-sufficiency that discourages seeking care.

How much does EMDR therapy cost in Vermont?

The intake session is $250 and ongoing 60-minute sessions are $225. Superbills for out-of-network reimbursement are available, as is private pay for clients who prefer that nothing be submitted to an insurer.

EMDR Therapy in Vermont

Q: Why is it so hard to find a therapist in Vermont?

Vermont has a small behavioral health workforce spread across a large rural state. According to The Workforce Report: Bridging the Mental Health Care Gap, published in March 2026 by the mental health policy organization Inseparable, Vermonters go out of network for mental health care 4.4 times more often than for medical or surgical care, and Vermont therapists earn approximately 62 cents for every dollar a physician assistant earns, a gap that drives clinicians out of the field.

Q: Does winter make trauma symptoms worse?

It often does. Reduced daylight disrupts sleep, which lowers capacity for emotional regulation; winter isolation removes ordinary steadying social contact; and when a difficult event occurred in a particular season, seasonal cues such as changes in light and temperature can trigger an anniversary reaction before the person consciously connects the two. Seasonal worsening of trauma symptoms is treatable.

Q: How long does EMDR therapy take?

It depends on what is being treated. A single-incident trauma in an otherwise stable adult may resolve in relatively few reprocessing sessions. Complex or developmental trauma takes considerably longer, largely because the preparation phase does.

Online trauma and PTSD treatment statewide — from an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant

I’m Jordan Nodelman, LICSW, BCD — an EMDRIA-Certified therapist and EMDRIA-Approved Consultant, licensed to practice Telehhealth in Vermont. I work with Vermonters anywhere in the state by secure video.

[Request a consultation → Click Here] · Call 754-946-6600

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Finding a therapist in Vermont is genuinely hard

If it has taken you months, or several tries, or you gave up for a while — that’s not a personal failure of persistence.

According to The Workforce Report, published in March 2026 by the mental health policy organization Inseparable: Vermonters seek out-of-network mental health care 4.4 times more often than they do for medical or surgical care. The same report identified a substantial pay gap driving clinicians out of the field: in Vermont, therapists earn roughly 62 cents for every dollar a physician assistant earns.

The practical result is a small workforce spread across a large, rural state, and long waits for anyone with a specialization.

Two things follow from that.

First, going out of network in Vermont isn’t unusual. For most Vermonters it’s simply how mental health care gets accessed. If you’ve been told to look outside your plan, you’re in the majority, not the exception.

Second, distance stops mattering. Roughly three-quarters of my EMDR caseload has been virtual since 2020, and for most presentations the outcomes are comparable to in-person work. Whether you’re in Burlington or a town of eight hundred, you reach the same clinician on the same terms.

You need a private space, a reliable connection and a device. Broadband is still uneven in parts of Vermont, and I’d rather say that than pretend otherwise — but if you can get online, geography no longer decides what level of specialist you can work with.

The privacy problem nobody names

In a state this size, a lot of people know a lot of people.

If you live in a town of two thousand, going to the local therapist can mean being recognized in the parking lot. It can mean your therapist also knows your employer, your ex, or your kid’s teacher. For anyone in a visible role — a teacher, a doctor, a first responder, a selectboard member, a business owner — that’s a real deterrent, and it keeps people out of care for years.

Working with someone outside your county removes that entirely. No waiting room, no parking lot, no overlap between your therapist’s life and yours. For some Vermonters that’s the whole reason virtual care works where local care didn’t.

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Winter is clinical material

Vermont sits about as far north as the contiguous United States goes, and seasonal affective patterns are well documented to become more prevalent with latitude. Vermont’s own legislature has examined seasonal affective disorder specifically among the state’s farmers.

What gets discussed less: winter tends to make existing trauma symptoms worse.

Short days and disrupted light exposure affect sleep, and poor sleep degrades your capacity to regulate almost everything else. Months of reduced contact mean fewer of the ordinary interactions that keep a nervous system settled. And for a lot of people, winter simply offers more time alone with material they can outrun in July.

There’s also this: if something difficult happened to you in a particular season, your body may register the change in light and cold as a cue long before your mind connects it to anything. That’s an anniversary reaction, it’s a recognized phenomenon, and it’s treatable.

If you notice every year that things get harder in November and you’ve concluded that’s just your personality — it may not be.

Farm and rural working life

Vermont agriculture has been under sustained pressure for decades, and the people in it carry things that rarely get named as clinical.

The weather decides your year and you have no say in it. Prices are set somewhere else. The farm may have been in your family for generations, which makes struggling with it feel like a personal betrayal rather than an economic condition. Equipment injuries, livestock losses and near-misses accumulate as genuine trauma exposure, not just bad days. And there’s a strong cultural expectation of self-sufficiency that makes asking for help feel like an admission of failure.

The same is often true for loggers, tradespeople, first responders and anyone else whose work is physical, seasonal and largely invisible to the people who benefit from it.

None of that means something is wrong with you. It means you have been carrying real weight, often without much acknowledgement.

What I treat

PTSD and complex trauma — single incidents, and the accumulated developmental kind that never had a name.

PTSD triggers — a sound, a smell, a season, and your body responds as though it’s happening now. Not an overreaction: a threat-detection system that learned something and was never told it was over. [More on PTSD triggers → Click Here]

Anxiety, including the high-functioning kind that’s invisible to everyone around you.

Negative core beliefs and low self-worth — “I’m not enough,” “I should be able to handle this.” These feel like accurate self-assessment, which is exactly why reasoning with them fails. [More on why positive thinking isn’t enough → Click Here]

Compartmentalized trauma — sealed away so you could keep functioning, and now surfacing. [More on compartmentalizing trauma → Click Here]

Substance use and compulsive patterns. I use DeTUR™, an EMDR-derived protocol built specifically for the triggers and urges underneath a behavior rather than the behavior alone. It can work alongside recovery programs rather than replacing them. [More on DeTUR → Click Here]

Grief and loss, including the kind attached to a place, a farm, or a way of life.

Survivors of sexual violence and childhood abuse, with careful, paced work.

ADHD and the shame of masking — especially in adults who compensated well enough that nobody noticed, including them. [More on ADHD and shame → Click Here]

Why a specialist

Most therapists who list EMDR completed a basic training. That’s the entry point, not the ceiling — and in a state with as few clinicians as Vermont, finding someone beyond that point locally is genuinely difficult.

I’m an EMDRIA-Approved Consultant — credentialed to train and certify other EMDR clinicians, which is how therapists earn EMDRIA certification — and a Board-Certified Diplomate in Clinical Social Work.

EMDR is an eight-phase treatment, and most of what goes wrong goes wrong in the first two. Reprocessing begun before the person could tolerate it. Targets sequenced by chronology rather than by charge. Dissociation missed at intake. Looping mistaken for resistance. Helping other clinicians untangle exactly those cases is a significant part of my professional work.

If you’ve tried EMDR and it didn’t go the way you hoped, that history is useful information rather than a verdict.

Fees and insurance

Intake session: $250. A longer first appointment to take history, understand what’s happening, and decide together whether I’m the right clinician.

Ongoing sessions: $225 for 60 minutes.

Given how common out-of-network care is in Vermont, it’s worth knowing your options: I can provide a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement, which many Vermont plans will pay a portion of. Private pay is available for anyone who’d rather nothing be submitted to an insurer at all. Current insurance details are on the insurance and FAQ page.

Most therapy hours are 45 or 50 minutes. EMDR reprocessing doesn’t reliably fit in that, and stopping someone mid-processing to watch the clock is poor practice. The full hour is a clinical decision.

Serving all of Vermont

Sessions are virtual, so I work with clients throughout the state — Burlington, South Burlington, Essex, Colchester, Winooski, Montpelier, Barre, Rutland, Bennington, Brattleboro, St. Johnsbury, Newport, St. Albans, Middlebury, Springfield, Hartford, White River Junction, Manchester, Stowe, and the towns between them.

I’m also licensed in Florida, DC, MD and VA — useful if you split your year, or if you move.

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Frequently asked questions

Do you have an office in Vermont? No. Vermont clients are seen virtually by secure video. In-person sessions are available only in the Fort Lauderdale, Florida area.

Is online EMDR as effective as in person? For most clients, yes. Virtual EMDR uses adapted forms of bilateral stimulation and has made up roughly three-quarters of my EMDR caseload since 2020. Significant dissociation is the main presentation warranting careful assessment first.

Why is it so hard to find a therapist in Vermont? A small workforce spread across a rural state, made smaller by compensation that drives clinicians out of the field. A March 2026 report found Vermonters seek out-of-network mental health care 4.4 times more often than for medical or surgical care, and that Vermont therapists earn about 62 cents for every dollar a physician assistant earns.

Do you take Vermont insurance? See the insurance and FAQ page for current details. I can provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement, which is how a large share of Vermonters access mental health care, and private pay is available.

I live in a small town and don’t want to be seen going to therapy. Does virtual help? Yes, and it’s one of the more common reasons Vermonters work with me. There’s no waiting room and no parking lot, and your therapist has no overlap with your community.

Does winter make trauma symptoms worse? It often does. Reduced daylight affects sleep, which reduces your capacity to regulate everything else; isolation removes ordinary steadying contact; and if something difficult happened in a particular season, the change in light and temperature can act as a cue before you consciously connect it to anything. This is treatable rather than something to endure annually.

Do you work with farmers and agricultural families? Yes. Farm work carries real trauma exposure — injuries, losses, near-misses — alongside financial pressure and a strong cultural expectation of self-reliance that keeps many people from seeking care.

How much does therapy cost? The intake is $250 and ongoing 60-minute sessions are $225. Superbills for out-of-network reimbursement and private pay are available.

How long does EMDR take? It depends on what we’re treating. A single-incident trauma in an otherwise stable adult may resolve in relatively few reprocessing sessions. Complex or developmental trauma takes considerably longer, mostly because preparation does. Be skeptical of anyone who quotes a number before assessing you.

Get started

A short consultation call costs nothing and commits you to nothing. You describe what’s going on; I’ll tell you honestly whether I’m the right person — and if I’m not, I’ll point you somewhere better.

Nodelman Counseling & Psychotherapy, LLC is not a crisis service. If you are experiencing a mental health emergency, call 911 or go to your nearest emergency room. 988 is the free, 24-hour US Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Contact Jordan Today for Therapy in Vermont

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