What is childhood trauma therapy?

Childhood trauma therapy is a specialized form of therapy that helps adults process and heal from difficult experiences in childhood — including emotional neglect, abuse, parentification, and loss. At Marlo Drago Therapy, treatment follows a three-phase model: Safety and Stabilization, Processing, and Integration, using EMDR, somatic therapy, and IFS.

How does EMDR help with childhood trauma?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps the brain reprocess stuck traumatic memories using bilateral stimulation — eye movements, tapping, or sounds. For childhood trauma, EMDR can reduce the emotional intensity of old memories so they no longer drive current behaviour, anxiety, or relationship patterns.

Do I need to remember my childhood trauma to heal from it?

No. Healing from childhood trauma does not require a detailed or clear memory of what happened. Many clients carry the effects of early experiences — anxiety, people-pleasing, difficulty with trust — without having explicit memories. Therapy works with your nervous system and present-day patterns, not just the past.

Is childhood trauma therapy available virtually in Ontario?

Yes. Marlo Drago Therapy offers fully virtual childhood trauma therapy across Ontario, including Toronto, Ottawa, London, Guelph, Mississauga, Hamilton, York Region, and North York. Sessions are delivered via a secure, HIPAA-compliant video platform.

Can therapy help with chronic pain?

Yes. Research consistently shows that chronic pain — including fibromyalgia, migraines, and medically unexplained pain — has strong connections to the nervous system and unprocessed trauma. Therapy using EMDR, somatic approaches, and polyvagal-informed care can reduce pain intensity, improve function, and address the emotional roots of chronic pain.

What is EMDR therapy for chronic pain?

EMDR for chronic pain uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain and nervous system reprocess pain signals and the traumatic experiences often connected to them. Marlo Drago is an EMDR-trained therapist with personal lived experience of fibromyalgia, migraines, and myofascial pain disorder, and her own healing through EMDR.

Is therapy for chronic pain available virtually in Ontario?

Yes. Chronic pain therapy with Marlo Drago is fully virtual and available to clients across Ontario. Sessions are delivered via a secure HIPAA-compliant video platform — accessible by phone, tablet, or computer.

What is therapy for moms?

Therapy for moms is trauma-informed care designed specifically for the challenges mothers face — mom burnout, postpartum anxiety, postpartum depression, birth trauma, mom guilt, identity loss, and childhood wounds surfacing through parenting. Marlo Drago Therapy works with mothers aged 16 and up across Ontario.

Does therapy help with postpartum anxiety and depression?

Yes. Postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression are highly treatable with the right support. Therapy can help you understand what's happening in your nervous system, process the emotional weight of early motherhood, and develop skills to regulate your mood and feel more like yourself again. Marlo Drago has personal experience with postpartum depression and anxiety.

What is birth trauma and can therapy help?

Birth trauma refers to a distressing or frightening experience during labour, delivery, or the early postpartum period. It can leave mothers with flashbacks, anxiety, difficulty bonding, or a sense of numbness. EMDR therapy is particularly effective for birth trauma and is offered at Marlo Drago Therapy virtually across Ontario.

Yes. Mom burnout is a real and recognized state of physical and emotional exhaustion caused by the chronic stress of caregiving with insufficient support. Signs include resentment, emotional numbness, irritability, and a loss of your sense of self. Therapy can help you understand the roots of burnout and rebuild in a sustainable way.

What is polyvagal therapy?

Polyvagal therapy is a nervous system-informed approach to healing that uses the principles of Polyvagal Theory — developed by Dr. Stephen Porges — to help people move out of chronic fight, flight, or freeze states. It focuses on building a felt sense of safety in the body as the foundation for emotional regulation and trauma healing.

How does polyvagal therapy work for trauma?

Polyvagal-informed therapy helps you identify which state your nervous system is in — safe and connected, mobilized (anxious, angry), or shut down (frozen, numb) — and develops skills to move toward regulation. Combined with EMDR and somatic therapy, it addresses trauma at the level of the body, not just the mind.

Is polyvagal therapy available virtually in Ontario?

Yes. Polyvagal-informed therapy with Marlo Drago is available virtually across Ontario. All individual therapy is delivered via a secure, HIPAA-compliant video platform — no app download required.

EMDR Therapist for Moms: Why Do I Feel Like a Bad Mom Even When I'm Doing My Best?

Marlo Drago
Jul 30
3 min read

If you've typed some version of "why do I feel like a bad mom" into Google at 11pm, you are far from alone, and I want to tell you something before we go any further: the fact that you're asking the question is already evidence you're not the thing you're afraid of being. As an EMDR therapist for moms, this is one of the most common things I hear in session.

EMDR Therapist for Moms. Mom of 2, trauma therapist.

Mom guilt isn't really about any one moment. It's not really about the forgotten snack day or the raised voice or the extra screen time. Those are the triggers, not the cause. The cause is usually older than your kids are.

For a lot of the women I work with, mom guilt is the moment their own childhood wounds get held up to a bright light. If you grew up believing your worth was tied to how well you managed everyone else's needs, being quiet, being easy, being the one who didn't cause problems, motherhood will activate that belief constantly. Every day gives you a hundred chances to fall short of an impossible standard nobody actually set except the voice in your head.

This Isn't a Willpower Problem

You can't logic your way out of mom guilt, because it isn't a logic problem. Telling yourself "I know I'm doing enough" doesn't quiet a nervous system that learned, a long time ago, that falling short meant something bad was coming.

This is why trauma-informed therapy and nervous system regulation work matter here in a way that generic parenting advice can't touch. We're not managing the guilt. We're going back to where the belief came from, so it stops running your parenting from the background.

What an EMDR Therapist for Moms Says Actually Helps

In our work together, this usually means:

Understanding where the belief "I have to be perfect to be worthy" actually came from
Learning to recognize guilt as a signal, not a verdict
Using EMDR or somatic work to process the original experiences the guilt is echoing
Building enough nervous system capacity that a hard parenting moment doesn't spiral into a full identity crisis

You are allowed to be a good mother and still have hard days. Those two things are not in conflict. The version of motherhood where you never mess up isn't the goal, and it was never actually available to anyone.

I offer virtual therapy for women and mothers across Ontario, using EMDR, IFS, somatic, and polyvagal-informed approaches, with direct billing through Telus eHealth and Sun Life. My fall intake is currently open — book a free 15-minute consult.

QUESTIONS, ANSWERED

Is mom guilt a real psychological phenomenon? Yes. Mom guilt describes the persistent feeling of falling short of parenting expectations, and it's often rooted in perfectionism, societal pressure, or unresolved beliefs from a person's own childhood rather than actual parenting failures.

Why does becoming a mom bring up old childhood trauma? Parenting activates a person's own attachment history. Caring for a child often surfaces memories, beliefs, and emotional patterns from a person's own upbringing, especially around worth, safety, and being enough.

Can therapy help with mom guilt? Yes. Trauma-informed and EMDR-based therapy can help identify the origin of guilt-driven beliefs and reduce their emotional charge, rather than just managing symptoms day to day.

marlo drago
THERAPY

EMDR Therapist for Moms: Why Do I Feel Like a Bad Mom Even When I'm Doing My Best?

This Isn't a Willpower Problem

What an EMDR Therapist for Moms Says Actually Helps

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