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EMDR Therapy
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It is used to help people recover from distressing events and subsequent problems, like difficult thoughts, flashbacks, distressing images, anxiety and depression. 'EMDR is a powerful scientifically proven psychotherapy to help people recover from traumatic events in their lives which have led to poor mental health.' - EMDR UK
What might be happening for you?
If you have been in a traumatic event, you may feel overwhelmed and like the memories around the event are 'stuck'. The feelings associated with the event can feel very intense - sometimes with physical feeling such as pain, smells and noises being re experienced. You may feel like you are back there, or like you can't move past it, and you might have nightmares or flashbacks around the event.
What happens in EMDR?
EMDR helps the brain to reprocess the 'stuck' memory so that it is less intense. To do this, we will initially build a trusting relationship, where we take a thorough history and make sure you have sufficient skills in regulation and feeling grounded. This could be through mindfulness tasks as well as other skills. This could be a quick process if you have strong regulation skills, or longer if there is more complexity.
We then get to the processing, where we ask you to think about the traumatic event. We get a range of information and statements to guide the work. We then ask you to think about the event whilst moving your eyes from side to side - often following the therapists hand or a light bar. You can also do this with sound in alternate ears or tapping your own hands, or being gently tapped on the hand by the therapist. These 'bialteral' movements activate the brain in such a way as to reprocess the memories and store them like regular memories. This makes them less emotionally charged. EMDR is not to be used by untrained therapists as it is a complex therapeutic process that requires safety and experience in delivering.
Check out EMDR UK for more details and information around how EMDR works
Book a free consultation call to chat things through.
Sessions start at £80 for one hour online / £90 in person. Block bookings available. Once we begin processing, we may need to move to 90+ minute sessions - £110 for online, in person pricing will be discussed.