Nicole McLaughlin

Nicole McLaughlin is an EMDRIA Approved Consultant, Certified EMDR Therapist, and Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) based in the Phoenix, Arizona metro area. As an EMDR Consultant in Phoenix, Arizona, Nicole is the co-founder of Blue Bird Counseling — a trauma-specialized group practice with locations in North Scottsdale and Glendale dedicated to body-based, trauma-informed therapy that goes far beyond symptom management. She is licensed in both Arizona and Oregon and holds a Master of Arts and Education Specialist degree in Professional Counseling from Seton Hall University.

Nicole’s path to becoming a therapist was deeply personal. Her own experiences with not-great therapy shaped her mission: to be the kind of clinician who truly hears what isn’t said — the emotion behind the smile, the tension in the silence, the protective layers built to survive. That attunement is at the heart of everything she does, both as a therapist and as a consultant.

Her clinical approach is integrative and depth-focused, drawing on EMDR, Deep Brain Reorienting (DBR), Brainspotting, Parts Work, Structural Dissociation Theory, The Meadows Model, Flash Technique, and the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation (MID). She specializes in complex trauma and PTSD, dissociation and structural dissociation, attachment and developmental trauma, and working with first responders — and is trained in administering and interpreting the MID for accurate dissociation assessment. She co-founded Blue Bird Counseling in 2022 after years of working alongside clients in intensive outpatient settings, recognizing that lasting healing requires more than talk therapy alone.

As an EMDR Consultant in Phoenix, Arizona, Nicole offers individual and small-group consultation in structured cohorts with a 6-session commitment — bringing the same warmth, depth, and clinical rigor to her consultees that she brings to every client she serves.