Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR therapy offers an additional way to work with life’s difficulties. I offer EMDR as a stand alone treatment or as part of an integrated approach with counselling.
EMDR is an effective treatment for working with trauma. It works to help you reprocess stuck memories through activating the natural healing ability of the brain. EMDR has been proved to be effective for a range of issues including anxiety, depression, low self esteem, grief, intrusive thoughts, phobias, pain and addictions. It does not require you to talk in detail about specific traumatic or difficult events and can be very helpful when sometimes there aren’t the words to explain, or they are too difficult to find.
Trauma and EMDR
Sometimes things happen to us that are overwhelming and affect our ability to manage our daily lives. These experiences are often easily recognised as traumatic – a single event like an accident or repeated overwhelming experiences like bullying or childhood neglect.
Trauma is an emotional response to these experiences and can leave people struggling to manage with flashbacks, freeze, panic, depression, anxiety, anger, or relationship difficulties. These experiences can shape how we see ourselves and the world around us. We may develop negative beliefs like “I’m not good enough” or “I’m unsafe’.
What many people are unaware of is that trauma affects the brain’s ability to process experiences. When this processing gets stuck, we get stuck too. That’s where EMDR comes in.
What Is EMDR?
EMDR was founded by Francine Shapiro in 1987 for the treatment of PTSD. Since then it has become one of the best ways to overcome anxiety, depression and other mental health struggles.
There are many stages during EMDR therapy; these include developing grounding techniques to support difficulties resulting from any traumatic experiences, like overwhelm or flashbacks. Processing is another part of EMDR and involves focusing on a specific memory or experience — along with the emotions, body sensations, and beliefs attached to it. Through guided eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation, both sides of the brain are activated, allowing it to reprocess the experience and reduce its emotional charge. Evaluating how EMDR is working will be an ongoing process so that we can adjust our focus if necessary, work on grounding techniques and have an eye to the future for what life will be like when processing is complete. For more information about the stages please see here https://www.emdria.org/blog/the-eight-phases-of-emdr-therapy/