What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a comprehensive psychotherapy that helps process and recover from past experiences that are affecting mental health and wellbeing. It involves using side to side eye movements combined with talk therapy in a specific and structured format.
EMDR helps process the negative images, emotions, beliefs and body sensations associated with traumatic memories that seem to be stuck. These can contribute to a range of mental health problems including anxiety and depression.
EMDR helps to see things from a different perspective and relieves symptoms. There can be a dramatic transformation from being constantly reminded of a traumatic memory and all the negative symptoms, to feeling like it is behind and not of significance anymore. EMDR is a way of kickstarting natural healing and a recovery process after any kind of trauma. I will be alongside you as you heal from the inside out.
What can EMDR help with?
EMDR was developed and is best known as a therapy for treating trauma or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It is recognised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a treatment for PTSD.
But it can be used to help with a range of mental health difficulties including anxiety, stress, panic attacks, depression, phobias, self esteem, performance anxiety, addictions, behavioural difficulties and relationship issues amongst others.
Many of these problems may actually be rooted in some kind of trauma, whether a person was bullied, criticised or abused in some way, either during childhood or as an adult, and it is not always obvious that this is the case.
How does EMDR work?
EMDR has a specific structure and I will work through several stages with you. These include assessment of your current symptoms and your readiness for EMDR, as well as understanding how your past has shaped your present. I will also explain why you are experiencing your current symptoms, and how trauma affects the mind and how it can seem as if it will never go away.
One of the first stages is understanding how the person has got to be this way and what happened. Also, what patterns have past events created, and what traumatic memories need to be processed to help recovery. I then prepare the person for the processing of traumatic memories. This can be a very powerful therapy and it is paramount that client safety comes first.
The next part of the therapy involves accessing the traumatic memories and starting bilateral stimulation. This involves stimulating either side of your brain in an alternating left-right fashion to help access the subconscious mind and process what is stored in there and how it affects you.
This can be achieved by either making eye movements from side to side. The eye movements may be similar to rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which take place as we dream. I will be using a platform called ‘remotEMDR’ which enables the client to follow a ball during the session in a specific format.
Working in this way means we can reprocess the emotion-laden memories. The duel-attention focus means clients are anchored in the present, but also have one foot in the past. I will help kickstart your natural healing process (which replaces the negative or traumatic images or memories). You can then view them in a different way so they do not feel distressing anymore.
Someone can tell you that your negative belief about yourself is not true, but you need to know that for yourself. With EMDR, the change in perspective comes from within and the transformative changes feels true at a gut level. There can be a remarkable change in how people feel, from feelings of terror, anxiety, panic, frustration, depression or shame to calmness and empowerment.
Sometimes people only need around six sessions of EMDR therapy for it to make a dramatic difference, although some clients with more complex issues will require more.
