EMDR THERAPY
EMDR THERAPY
Helping process painful memories and experiences that remain unresolved. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma-focused psychotherapy that can be used with single-event trauma, complex and developmental trauma, and attachment-related experiences that remain emotionally unresolved.
Trauma is not always about a single event or rupture. Sometimes difficulties develop through repeated experiences over time, or through the absence of the safety, connection and repair we need within important relationships.
We may understand intellectually that something happened in the past, yet our emotions and body continue to respond as though some part of that experience is still happening. EMDR helps these experiences become processed and integrated so they have less emotional intensity and influence over your present life.
“Ultimately, the main goal of trauma therapy is to relegate the trauma to its rightful place in the client’s past.”
–Babette Rothschild
Helping process painful memories and experiences that remain unresolved. Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a trauma-focused psychotherapy that can be used with single-event trauma, complex and developmental trauma, and attachment-related experiences that remain emotionally unresolved.
Trauma is not always about a single event or rupture. Sometimes difficulties develop through repeated experiences over time, or through the absence of the safety, connection and repair we need within important relationships.
We may understand intellectually that something happened in the past, yet our emotions and body continue to respond as though some part of that experience is still happening. EMDR helps these experiences become processed and integrated so they have less emotional intensity and influence over your present life.
“Ultimately, the main goal of trauma therapy is to relegate the trauma to its rightful place in the client’s past.”
–Babette Rothschild
During EMDR, you are invited to bring aspects of a distressing experience to mind while engaging in bilateral stimulation, commonly through guided eye movements or other forms of alternating stimulation.
EMDR does not erase a memory or make you forget what happened. As processing occurs, the memory can become less disturbing. You can still remember the experience, but it may no longer produce the same emotional, physical or nervous-system response.
Although EMDR is well known for treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), much of my work involves complex and developmental trauma, where there may not be one single traumatic event.
Instead, many experiences across childhood, adolescence or relationships may gradually shape how you see yourself and others. These can contribute to deeply held beliefs such as “I’m not good enough, ” “I’m unsafe, ” “I don’t matter, ” or “I have to keep everyone else happy. ”
With complex trauma, EMDR is not simply about identifying the worst memory and immediately beginning processing. Preparation, resourcing, establishing safety and working at a pace appropriate for you are important parts of the therapy.
There may also be parts of us that learned to protect us when we were younger and continue working hard to keep us safe today. I incorporate IFS-informed parts work and Resource Therapy alongside EMDR to understand these protective responses and help them soften, while also resourcing younger wounded parts with the safety, protection, comfort or connection that may have been missing at the time.
The aim is not simply to reduce the distress of a memory, but to help the experience become more fully processed and integrated.
I also incorporate Attachment-Informed EMDR (AI-EMDR), particularly when difficulties are connected with complex trauma, early relationships, attachment experiences or unmet developmental needs.
Sometimes the wound is not only something that happened to us. It can also come from something we needed but never received.
Attachment wounds can develop not only through ruptures in important relationships, but through a lack of repair afterwards. When fear, rejection, distress or disconnection is repeatedly left without comfort, reassurance or reconnection, these experiences can shape what we come to expect from ourselves and from relationships.
Experiences such as emotional neglect, inconsistent caregiving, rejection, abandonment, criticism or a lack of emotional safety can later appear as shame, people-pleasing, difficulty trusting, fear of rejection, emotional disconnection or recurring patterns within adult relationships.
An attachment-informed approach allows us to work not only with distressing memories, but also with the relational and developmental experiences surrounding them, including what may have been missing at the time.
The aim is to reduce the emotional charge the past continues to carry and create greater freedom in how you experience yourself, respond to your emotions and connect with other people.
Complex Trauma
PTSD & Traumatic Memories
Childhood Abuse & Neglect
Shame & Self-Worth
Grief & Loss
Distressing Memories & Triggers
Phobias & Fears
