EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing)

EMDR, which stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, is one of the most well-established trauma therapies we have. It does not take away what happened to you, and it does not erase your memories. Instead, it can change your relationship with them, so that a memory which once felt vivid and overwhelming begins to feel more settled and more distant: part of your history rather than your present.

When something frightening or painful overwhelms us, the brain can store the experience in a raw, unprocessed form, together with the beliefs we formed about ourselves in that moment, such as ‘I am in danger’ or ‘it was my fault’. EMDR helps your mind do the processing it was unable to do at the time, so those old beliefs can soften, and you can come to understand that the past is in the past, and that we are now here, in the present, safe from whatever we faced before. I trained in EMDR through EMDR UK in 2021, and I use it carefully, at a pace that feels manageable for you.

Who it can help

• The aftermath of a single frightening or traumatic event, such as an accident, an assault, a medical trauma or a sudden loss
• Post-traumatic stress: nightmares, flashbacks and intrusive memories that pull you back into what happened
• Feeling constantly on guard, easily startled or unable to switch off, with a nervous system that stays stuck in alarm (hypervigilance and dysregulation)
• Panic attacks, anxiety and a racing sense of threat that does not fit the present moment
• Sleep that will not come, or nights broken by dreams of the event (insomnia)
• Numbness, or feeling cut off from yourself and from the people around you
• Shame and self-blame: the belief that what happened was somehow your fault, or that you are not safe or not good enough
• Difficulty trusting others, or feeling on the edge of everyday situations you used to manage

What a session is like

We never rush into the difficult material. EMDR follows a structured set of phases, and we begin by getting to know your history together and building a sense of safety and steadiness, including simple grounding tools you can use during and between sessions. Only when you feel ready do we begin reprocessing.

During reprocessing, I invite you to bring a particular memory to mind while you follow a form of bilateral stimulation: usually your eyes tracking my hand or a moving light from side to side, or a gentle tapping on your knees or shoulders. This left-right rhythm seems to help the brain process the memory, a little like it does during dream sleep. We work in short sets and pause often to notice what has shifted. Because this processing needs enough time and space to open and settle within a single session, I often suggest 90-minute sessions (£135) for reprocessing work, always agreed with you in advance. You stay in control throughout, and we can slow down or stop at any point.

I offer EMDR both in person at my practice near Ashburton in Devon and online across the UK and internationally, and because bilateral stimulation adapts well to a screen, using guided on-screen movement or self-tapping, many people find online EMDR works well for them.

Related: Attachment-informed EMDR (for relational and complex trauma) · Internal Family Systems (IFS) · Art Psychotherapy