Center for Growing Families 4405 East-West Highway, Bethesda, MD 20814

"This review is about my experience doing short-term EMDR with Aliza Lerner in early 2023 and not about the Center for Growing Families practice as a whole. Aliza’s approach to client management did not reflect good practice: - Aliza used a couples' email address that she shared/s(?) with her conservative husband to communicate with me. - Aliza failed to clearly explain key features of her short-term EMDR model (e.g., maximum number of sessions, possible negative outcomes, etc.). Failing to protect my privacy and confidentiality and to secure my informed consent constitute ethical breeches. While I experienced physical symptoms following and between sessions (e.g., headache, nausea, dizziness, etc.), I was not alarmed as Aliza had warned me about this possibility. During several sessions, I gained some helpful insights and a new perspective. Because it felt like healing was possible, I was committed to continuing EMDR with Aliza. I was caught off guard when Aliza offered to refer me to someone else, suddenly claiming that my physical symptoms indicated that I needed more EMDR sessions than she was willing to provide. After seeing how upset I was, she reversed course and said that more EMDR was contra-indicated for me at this time. Aliza's relative inexperience as an EMDR provider was apparent in this course-reversal. Aliza has not responded to my experience in a manner that I would consider to be compassionate/kind. First, she has not apologized for the harm caused. Additionally, when I shared in a written format directly with Aliza about the impact this experience had on me, she did not reply. Most importantly, she has not adapted her EMDR model to be more flexible and capable of responding to the unforeseeable needs that might arise for her clients as she leads them through the EMDR process (e.g., need for more sessions, etc.). I feel responsible to leave this review because of how damaging my experience was and my concern that someone else could have a similar one. This is the first time that I leave a public negative review. The co-founder of the Center for Growing Families, Kimberly Satin Kubler, has decided not to refer to Aliza for short-term EMDR."