January Provider Spotlight: Tarin Muir-Davis, LMFT
At Wellspring, we believe healing happens through genuine connection, creating space for trust, growth, and meaningful change. This month, we are honored to shine a spotlight on Tarin Muir-Davis, LMFT. At the core of her work are values that guide both her personal and professional life: compassion, honesty, authenticity, justice, creativity, and curiosity.
Shaped by her personal journey to becoming a therapist and living an exciting colorful life full of travel, curiosity, art and lots of music, Tarin brings a combination of humor, life-experience and trauma-coping skills to the practice.
As an EMDRIA trained EMDR practitioner, Tarin is passionate when it comes to helping clients who struggle with trauma, helping them grow through limiting beliefs.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a trauma-informed therapy that helps the brain reprocess distressing memories so they no longer feel overwhelming or shape negative beliefs. Using guided eye movements or other bilateral stimulation, EMDR supports healing by allowing past experiences to be stored as memories—rather than ongoing emotional triggers—helping clients feel more grounded, confident, and in control.
Tarin works with clients dealing with an array of traumas, and she is currently working towards attaining full certification over the next two years. Get to know more about Tarin and what has inspired the work she does.
About Tarin…
What values guide you most—both in your work and in your life?
“The values I hold include: being compassionate to others; being genuine and honest. I value relationships with others and embrace our differences. I value strength and bravery to continue to heal in the world around us. I value creativity and curiosity that honor ongoing growth wisdom. Also, I value justice and standing up for others, while finding our own powerful voice to stand up for ourselves.”
What do you enjoy doing outside of work that helps you recharge?
“I love nature and being outdoors which can include camping, hiking, sitting on the beach, or having lunch in the sun. I recharge by watching movies, and spending time with friends and family. I love to do crafts, listen to music, and create art, all of which I incorporate into my therapy practice with clients. But my biggest recharge is travel, and experiencing new cultures; which may include something as small as just driving to a nearby city to try a new restaurant, or going to another country to immerse myself in exploring different lived experiences.”
What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
“Being a Marriage and Family Therapist is my second career. I went to music school when I was 19 and graduated with a degree in music business and audio engineering. I organized and ran concerts and other music events for Amoeba Music for over 5 years. I also played jazz trombone for 14 years, and was briefly in a Johnny Cash cover band in my 20’s while living in San Francisco.”
As a clinician…
How would you describe your approach or style as a therapist?
“Humanistic – trauma informed – client centered. No matter if I am doing art therapy or EMDR with clients, my goal is to always meet them where they are at, and allow them to be the expert in their own life. I believe that being my genuine self has allowed for building strong therapeutic relationships which is the foundation for clients to be vulnerable enough to discover their own internal strength.”
What types of clients or concerns do you feel especially passionate about supporting?
“I see a wide variety of clients with a number of different mental health challenges, but my passion is working with trauma, and aiding clients to heal from the negative things that they have experienced.”
What do you hope clients feel when they first meet you?
“I want clients to feel safe. I want clients to feel that they get a good sense of who I am by my personality, and can feel emphatically that I care.”
How do you create a sense of safety and trust in the therapy space?
“I get human with them. I use humor, empathy, and validation, because I believe that it’s important for clients to feel that I am on their team, and that they are in control of their own healing journey.”
What do you find most rewarding about being a clinician?
“Being able to build trusting connections with people from all different backgrounds, where they feel safe enough to share their stories, and to be able to see people make positive changes that impact their life in ways they desire.”
What do you wish more clients understood about therapy?
“That participating in psychotherapy is not for the weak minded, or something to be ashamed of. It’s about learning to better your own life, and learn tools to get you through future challenging times. As a clinician it’s not my job to judge your lived experience or give you my opinion, as a clinician it’s my job to support, teach, and empower each person to live their life in ways that make them feel better. I use the analogy often that starting psychotherapy is like signing up for college to get a degree in yourself, the more we know about how we think, perceive, and act, the more control we have over our life. All of which ripples out positive energy into our communities and world around us.”
EMDR-Specific Questions
Are you certified in EMDR?
“I am an EMDRIA trained EMDR practitioner which allows me to work with clients dealing with an array of traumas. I will be working on my EMDR full certification over the next year or two.”
What led you to want to use EMDR as an approach to working with clients?
“I was lucky enough to have a psychotherapist who is an EMDRIA trained EMDR practitioner, and I was able to use EMDR as a client which has continued to positively impact my life on a daily basis. After experiencing the positive changes that come with EMDR in my personal life I knew it would always be something I would want to pursue professionally.”
How do you explain EMDR to clients who have never heard of it?
“EMDR is like taking an adverse memory that that is filed in the wrong filing cabinet, which then festers with negative belief systems, such as “I’m not good enough”, “I’m not worthy”, etc., and moving that memory in the right filing cabinet – where memories are supposed to go – so that the memory is just a memory, and the negative belief systems dissipate. The eye movement back and forth keeps you present, and helps connect the logical and emotional sides of the brain to process the past trauma as a team with more clarity.”
What types of concerns or experiences can EMDR be especially helpful for?
“Negative belief systems stem from adverse experiences, and EMDR is able to identify the belief, and find the memory or multiple memories it is attached to, in order to heal from it. EMDR can be used to help heal various different types of trauma, from bullying, to abuse, or even physical accidents such as a car crash. Trauma does not have to be caused by a huge event such as going to war, it can occur with everyday life; and EMDR can help support healing from an array of traumatic events, which makes it a powerful tool in mental health care.”
What does an EMDR session typically look like?
“EMDR is an 8 phase process that consists of history taking, building coping tools, psychoeducation, somatic exercises, and the actual reprocessing of the chosen adverse memories. So depending on which phase you are at, the sessions will look different. When the client is ready to reprocess a memory, they would attend their normal 50 minute session, and I would utilize either the rapid eye moment technique, where the client tracks my fingers back and forth, or they will hold on to buzzers that vibrate in their hands so that they can have their eyes closed. Then the client would be guided back into the memory while staying present in the space (this is not hypnosis), and work through the memory with a series of questions until it is reprocessed and no longer painful to recall. A memory can be reprocessed in as little as a single 50 minute session, though it can take a couple sessions to fully reprocess some memories. This process can go fairly quickly for some, and for others it might take a bit longer, but no matter what, I tailor the EMDR process to the client and their unique needs.”
Can you share a moment (without identifying details) when EMDR made a meaningful difference for a client?
“I had a client who I saw for EMDR and she grew up in a highly abusive home where her parents would physically and emotionally abuse the whole family often. This client reported a depressed mood, fear, high anxiety, and lack of self-identity that impacted her self-esteem. After she completed all the phases and she reprocessed all the memories that were plaguing her on a regular basis, she became more confident, she was able to stand up for herself, set boundaries with her family, and made positive changes in her life that she had been too fearful to do prior to EMDR. She told me that she felt like she had just “cracked out of the egg” that had trapped her with the weight of her traumas, and was now free to be herself. This is just one example of many that I have been privileged to witness and support.”
What would you say to someone who is unsure if EMDR is right for them?
“If someone is unsure if EMDR is right for them, that is OK! EMDR is hard work, and it takes a level of readiness and commitment to the treatment that some people might not be ready for. But, what I can say is that there is no real risk to EMDR; meaning, the adverse memories can’t get worse if it doesn’t work, it just might not be the right approach for some people. The good thing about EMDR is it is a multi-phased process, so even if someone starts the EMDR phases and then changes their mind, they will be able to shift into a different modality that might fit them better at their stage of change. I love doing EMDR and supporting clients in healing from their traumas, but it’s not all I offer, and so I tell people often, that you don’t have to dive into the deep end right away to want to dive in once you feel comfortable in the water.”
Closing Questions
What do you hope clients take away from working with you?
“I hope that a client can leave treatment feeling heard, seen, and witnessed. I hope they are able to look at their psychotherapy experience as a positive, and feel open to seeking support in the future if they need it. I strive to be a clinician that supports the ending of mental health stigma by making it a human experience and normalizing our need for help throughout our lifespan.”
Is there anything exciting or new you’re looking forward to in your clinical work?
“Over the next couple years, I will be working on not only getting fully EMDRIA certified in EMDR, but I am also working on getting my CCPT-II certification which is a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional Level II with a focus on complex trauma, that I will be able to pair with my knowledge of EMDR. I am also looking forward to having my own office space within Wellspring to offer more in-person appointments, and be able to start utilizing more art therapy interventions which are fun and helpful for all ages.”