EMDR

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing or EMDR is an effective psychotherapy technique for dealing with symptoms* resulting from disturbing and unresolved life experiences, including PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).  EMDR is used as part of the overall therapy to reduce the client's level of distress.

The National Institute for Clinical Excellent (NICE) recommends EMDR for the successful treatment of trauma.  For more information click here to read the NICE guidance.  EMDR has a broad base of published case reports and controlled research that supports it as an empirically validated treatment of trauma and other adverse life experiences.

* Symptoms include intrusive images including flashbacks, negative thoughts or beliefs, negative emotions such as fear, guilt or shame, low self-esteem.

EMDR follows an 8 phase treatment plan: history taking, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure and re-evaluation.  I will guide you through all of stages  and explain everything as we go along.

These stages include the use of eye movements or other forms of left and right alternating stimulation, along with relaxation exercises, guided visualisations and breathing techniques.

Sometimes when we feel overwhelmed by an event, our brain is not able to process it properly at the time and the event gets stored in a fragmented form.  EMDR enables you to re-process it so that it no longer causes you problems in your everyday life.

EMDR enables people to imitate the psychological state similar to REM/dream sleep.  This allows people to make new positive associations and process old material which has been troubling them and make more appropriate, healthier connections.  

EMDR is a powerful tool and the changes can be dramatic and rapid, however, I am there to support you through the whole process. 

EMDR has successfully helped: military personnel, people with phobias, panic attacks, crime victims, sexual assault and rape victims, people with PTSD, emergency service personnel and many more.

One of the benefits of using EMDR is that you do not have to talk about the details of the traumatic memory in order to process it.  Some people find this a huge relief.

Some of the sessions during treatment may require up to 90 minutes to allow full, effective processing.  The fee for an extended session is £75.   Please ask me if you would like to use EMDR as part of your treatment and I will try to ensure that we can extend our session times, as this is only possible within certain times.