Finding the Path Back: How Tanya Pusey Helps Clients Heal Through Brainspotting, EMDR, and Trauma-Informed Therapy

For many people struggling with anxiety, trauma, grief, or emotional overwhelm, the most frustrating part of the experience is knowing they should be feeling better but not understanding why they don't.

Logic says the danger has passed. Time has moved on. Life should feel normal again. Yet the nervous system often tells a different story.

It is this space, where the mind wants to move forward but the body remains stuck in old survival patterns, that has defined much of Tanya Pusey's work over the last three decades.

As a licensed clinical social worker and founder of Riverton Counseling in South Jordan, Utah, Pusey has spent nearly 30 years helping individuals navigate some of life's most difficult experiences. Along the way, she has become known for her ability to blend compassion with advanced neurological approaches to therapy, helping clients move beyond symptom management and toward genuine healing.

While many therapists focus primarily on traditional talk therapy, Pusey's work centres on understanding how emotional experiences are stored within the brain and nervous system. Her approach reflects a growing body of research suggesting that trauma is not simply remembered cognitively. It is often carried physiologically, influencing emotions, behaviour, relationships, and even physical health long after the original experience has ended.

That understanding led her to pursue specialized training in Brainspotting, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), therapeutic approaches designed to access and process trauma at a deeper neurological level.

Although she utilizes several evidence-based modalities, Brainspotting has become the cornerstone of her practice.

Developed by Dr. David Grand, Brainspotting is based on the observation that where a person looks can influence what they feel. By identifying specific eye positions associated with unresolved emotional experiences, therapists can help clients access areas of the brain where trauma and distress may be stored.

The process often bypasses the limitations of language, allowing individuals to process experiences that can be difficult, or sometimes impossible, to fully articulate.

For Pusey, this approach has proven particularly powerful.

Many of the individuals who seek her help arrive feeling trapped in recurring cycles of anxiety, emotional reactivity, intrusive memories, or persistent feelings of disconnection. Traditional approaches may have provided insight, but insight alone does not always create relief.

Brainspotting offers something different.

Rather than repeatedly analysing a problem, the work allows the brain itself to begin processing what has remained unresolved. Clients frequently report shifts that feel profound yet difficult to explain. The emotional charge attached to painful experiences begins to lessen. Reactions that once felt automatic become more manageable. A sense of safety gradually returns.

Pusey's belief in this work is rooted not only in clinical training but in a deeper understanding of neuroplasticity, the brain's remarkable ability to reorganize and create new pathways throughout life.

"People often believe they are broken because they continue reacting to something that happened years ago," she explains. "The reality is that the nervous system is doing exactly what it was designed to do. The good news is that the brain can change."

This perspective informs every aspect of her practice.

Whether she is working with survivors of trauma, individuals living with anxiety disorders, those navigating relationship challenges, or clients processing significant grief and loss, Pusey approaches healing through the lens of possibility rather than limitation.

Her expertise extends beyond trauma treatment alone.

As a Certified Grief Educator, she works extensively with individuals coping with loss, helping them navigate one of life's most universal yet deeply personal experiences. Rather than viewing grief as something to overcome, she helps clients understand and move through it in a way that honours both their pain and their resilience.

She also supports individuals struggling with depression, family conflict, marital difficulties, life transitions, and emotional challenges that often emerge when old wounds have never been fully processed.

Alongside Brainspotting, Pusey incorporates EMDR, one of the most widely researched trauma therapies available today. EMDR helps the brain reprocess distressing memories so they become less emotionally overwhelming, allowing individuals to remember difficult experiences without continually reliving them.

She also utilizes Accelerated Resolution Therapy, a focused therapeutic approach designed to help clients rapidly reduce the emotional impact of disturbing memories. For some individuals, ART can provide meaningful relief in a relatively short period of time, making it a valuable addition to her therapeutic toolkit.

What distinguishes Pusey's work, however, is not simply the modalities she uses.

It is the philosophy that underpins them.

At a time when mental health conversations often focus on symptom reduction, her work remains rooted in a deeper objective: helping people reconnect with themselves.

Clients frequently arrive carrying years of self-criticism, confusion, and frustration. Many have spent significant portions of their lives believing they should simply "get over" what happened to them. Pusey's approach challenges that narrative. Instead of asking why someone is struggling, she seeks to understand what their nervous system has been trying to protect them from.

That shift in perspective often becomes the beginning of healing.

For nearly thirty years, Tanya Pusey has helped people find their way through trauma, grief, anxiety, and emotional pain. Through Brainspotting, EMDR, ART, and a deeply compassionate therapeutic presence, she continues to help clients discover what many feared they had lost forever: the belief that healing is still possible.

And for those who have spent years feeling stuck, that belief can be life-changing.