About Dr. Curtis

The Spark

I discovered Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy during graduate school after hearing multiple therapy modalities that didn't resonate with me. Something about EMDR was different; it was logical, efficient, and got to the root of what was causing people's suffering rather than just managing symptoms. I don't like wasting people's time, and I could see the value immediately. I created an independent study to be trained during my first master's program and began using it during my internship.

Then I experienced it myself, as graduate school required us to engage in our own personal therapy experience to know what it is like to be a client. I chose EMDR to process my own past trauma, and it worked. Ten years later, those symptoms are gone. When I realized how many people suffer from numerous forms of trauma, such as one in four women and one in six men experience sexual abuse in the United States, and few therapists can effectively treat it, I knew treating trauma was my path.

The Evolution

During my internship and early career, I watched talk therapy fail people. I felt my hands were tied when clients wanted talk therapy, or weren't ready to engage in EMDR, or when we would make progress in weekly sessions only to have them disappear for months, returning later still struggling. The pattern became clear: traditional weekly therapy often creates a "one step forward, two steps back" cycle. Clients would feel better, stop coming, and never finish the work, only later needing therapy again to treat symptoms and not the root of the problem, the stuck memory that needed reprocessing.

That's what drew me to intensive therapy. When clients process all their trauma in one concentrated week instead of scattered across years, they actually heal. They don't have the chance to lose momentum or convince themselves they're "fine enough." The work gets completed.

The Vision

I decided on having my own practice since graduate school, but for years my heart was with the underserved populations at Fairbanks Native Association (FNA); the homeless, impoverished, and downtrodden. I brought EMDR to FNA in 2013. It was hard to leave knowing what those clients needed, but now several providers at the facility offer EMDR and trauma treatment, not just substance use support. It was time to bring these skills to a broader population.

I'm client-centered and focused, and I've always considered my boss as my client. My paycheck isn't a dollar amount; it's when a client tells me they're no longer suffering, that the trauma is adaptively processed and the symptoms are gone. I want every client to see that PTSD is actually curable now. They don't have to spend years reliving their trauma. They can put the past in the past and move forward with new understanding of how their brain works. And that can all be possible in one week.

Alaska offers something unique for this healing. The northern lights in winter, 24-hours of sunlight in summer, the vast nature, there's space here to reset and restore while doing the deep work. I want clients to experience transformation they didn't think was possible, tell others about their healing, and create a ripple effect, because there are so many people still suffering who don't know this level of recovery exists.