EMDR Therapy

EMDR stands for eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing.  It is an integrative psychotherapy that helps people recover from problems that are driven by difficult past events and traumatic experiences, and is used to treat troubling symptoms, such as anxiety, guilt, anger, depression, panic, sleep disturbance, and flashbacks.  These symptoms often persist because traumatic memories can become "stuck" causing them to resurface, especially during stressful times. EMDR works by helping the brain to reprocess these traumatic memories, which reduces their intensity and the distress they cause. This adaptive healing process is similar to the way the body naturally repairs a wound or injury.

The full EMDR therapy process takes place over eight phases and several sessions. However, to very briefly describe it, we begin with a detailed therapeutic review of your needs and current situation. We develop skills to regulate and calm your nervous system. These skills also become useful in everyday life. We work collaboratively to agree on an action plan that is customized to you and keeps your goals in mind.  Therapist and client then agree on what memory to work on, whereas the client is then asked to focus on an aspect of that memory and reconnect with that event.  Whilst holding the elements of the memory in awareness the client is asked to focus on either the therapist’s hand, or in the case of working online, possibly a digital ball on the screen, moving from side to side. These movements are called bilateral stimulation and can be facilitated as previously described or as body tapping or a variation of these and other techniques. This is done for a few minutes and then there is a pause to check in with the client to ask what they are noticing. We repeat this process several times with the aim to reduce the emotional intensity to its lowest point.

Overall, as the EMDR acronym suggests; the eye movements use bilateral stimulation to desensitize or remove and reduce the emotional disturbance associated with the traumatic memory. The re-processing refers to the replacement of the unhealthy, negative beliefs associated with traumatic memories, with more healthy, positive beliefs and perspectives. This activity is not dissimilar to the Rapid Eye Movement (REM) cycle in our sleep when our brains process thoughts, emotions, and memories. Research suggests that an important part of trauma processing happens during REM sleep, where the eyes move from side to side. EMDR mimics this natural process through controlled eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation, helping to process and desensitize traumatic memories.

EMDR is best known for the treatment of PTSD, but it is also used for several mental health issues and distress caused by events such as car accidents, abuse, bullying or violent crime. It is widely used in the NHS and Ministry of Defence and is recognised as an effective treatment by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), so it gives clients some reassurance that this therapy is backed by research.