IFS & EMDR Therapist in Murrieta, ca
You Don’t Need to Have It All Figured Out to Start Therapy
Tana Noonan, LMFT
Therapy can be hard enough without feeling like you also have to be good at it.
You don’t need the perfect explanation for what’s wrong. You don’t need to know which memory matters, what emotion you’re supposed to be feeling, or how everything connects before we begin.
Some people come in with a clear sense of what they want to work on. Others know something isn’t working but have no idea where to start.
Both are completely workable.
What It’s Like to Work With Me
I’m not a therapist who sits quietly while you squirm.
I’ll ask questions, offer feedback, point out things I’m seeing, and slow us down when something important is happening. If we’re talking around something, I may say so. If what you’re saying and what seems to be happening emotionally don’t quite match, we can get curious about that too.
At the same time, I’m not interested in forcing you somewhere you aren’t ready to go.
If anger is what’s accessible today, we don’t need to rush past it to get to the sadness underneath. If you go blank when we get close to something painful, we work with the blankness rather than treating it like a problem. If you need to understand why we’re doing something before you can trust the process, I’m happy to explain it.
You don’t have to perform insight, vulnerability, or progress for me.
We work with what is actually happening.
A Good Fit Matters
This is for you if you want a therapist who is engaged rather than distant and is willing to tell you what she’s seeing.
You want to be involved in the process—to ask questions and say when something is or isn’t working.
You appreciate directness without being pushed and depth without having to perform vulnerability on command.
WHAT I HELP WITH:
STRESS & BURNOUT
When pressure, responsibility, and internal demands become unsustainable.
NEURODIVERGENT ADULTS
Therapy that accounts for ADHD, autism, masking, and how your brain actually works.
TRAUMA | PTSD
When something that happened then is still affecting life now.
ATTACHMENT & RELATIONSHIPS
For the ways closeness, conflict, trust, and old relationship experiences affect you now.
Why I Work This Way
Before private practice, I worked in public mental health, detention settings, crisis response, inpatient treatment, and with survivors of violent crime and trafficking.
That work taught me a lot about resilience—and about the limitations of systems built primarily around stabilization. I became interested in what happened after the immediate crisis was over: why some experiences continued shaping relationships, emotions, and a person’s sense of self long after the danger had passed.
In 2019, I opened my private practice so I could work with people in a more individualized way, with enough flexibility to follow what actually needed attention rather than a predetermined treatment path.
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I don’t follow rigid protocols. I pay attention to what you need and adjust the work from there.
All of my work, whether it’s IFS, EMDR, somatic therapy, or attachment-focused work, is grounded in a few core beliefs:
Insight isn’t always enough. Understanding why something happens is useful, but change often requires working with the emotional and physical responses that keep showing up.
Your responses make sense in context. Anxiety, perfectionism, shutdown, and overfunctioning often developed for a reason. We get curious about what they’re doing for you rather than treating them as character flaws.
Your nervous system sets the pace. We can slow down, go deeper, or change direction depending on what feels workable and useful.
IFS is the foundation of my work, helping us understand protective strategies and vulnerabilities. So you can be who you actually are, not who you had to be to get by.
EMDR helps process experiences that still feel emotionally or physically unresolved. EMDR Intensives offer longer sessions when more concentrated work makes sense.
Somatic work brings attention to and helps release what’s happening in your body. So your nervous system learns it's safe to feel, rest, and be present instead of constantly bracing for danger or shutting down.
Attachment work explores how early relationships may still influence how you see yourself, trust others, and experience closeness.
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Credentials:
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT #53258), California
MA in Clinical Psychology, Chapman University
Core Certifications:
Certified EMDR Therapist | Parnell Institute (2020)
Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP) (2020)
Certified ADHD Clinical Services Provider (ADHD-CCSP) (2024)
Certified in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (2009)
Advanced Training:
Internal Family Systems (IFS) Level 1 (IFSI 2025)
Somatic Experiencing (SE)
Polyvagal Theory
Supporting Victims of Human Trafficking, Mass Violence, and Critical Incidents
Recognition:
Certificate of Recognition from San Bernardino County for crisis response following the December 2, 2015 terrorist attack at Inland Regional Center
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FAQS
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Weekly 50–55 minute individual therapy sessions are $200. EMDR Intensives are structured differently and have custom pricing based on length and format—you can view full details and package rates on my EMDR Intensives page.
While I am an out-of-network provider, I partner with Thrizer to process out-of-network insurance benefits directly, which often allows eligible clients to pay only a copay post-deductible rather than full fees upfront.
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Traditional talk therapy focuses on the prefrontal cortex—analyzing and understanding the problem. While insight is valuable, it rarely changes how your nervous system reacts. My approach integrates body-based and experiential therapies like EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS™), and somatic tracking to bridge the gap between knowing your patterns and actually feeling different.
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You don't need a neat summary or a clear diagnosis to start. Many clients begin feeling overwhelmed by overlapping issues—such as burnout, neurodivergence, relationship strain, and past trauma. During our initial sessions, we will map out what your system is experiencing and prioritize what needs care first.
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No. Effective trauma therapy does not require you to recount every painful memory. With approaches like EMDR and somatic therapy, we focus on how trauma is stored in your body, memory networks, and emotional responses, allowing your system to reprocess traumatic stress safely without re-traumatizing you.
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Weekly therapy provides steady, ongoing support to process patterns over time. An EMDR Intensive is an accelerated format—offering concentrated extended sessions over a few days—ideal for clients who want to process specific blocks or trauma faster without months of weekly appointments. We can discuss which format fits your lifestyle during your consultation.
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Yes. I provide neurodivergent-affirming, LGBTQIA+ affirming, and secular trauma care for adults in Murrieta, CA, and online across California.