EMDR: Heal from Trauma Without Reliving It
EMDR therapy is a proven, evidence-based approach to trauma. It helps your brain process difficult memories safely, without needing to recount every painful experience, so you can feel safer, more in control, and able to move forward.
Why Choose EMDR?
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Evidence-based: Recommended by the NHS, NICE, and WHO for trauma, PTSD, and CPTSD.
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Tailored: Sessions move at your pace and comfort level.
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Deep healing: Goes beyond coping skills to address what’s underneath.
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Holistic impact: Improves self-worth, confidence, and connection in relationships.
What is EMDR therapy?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
EMDR therapy is a structured, evidence-based approach designed to help people heal from trauma and distressing experiences. EMDR is a way of kickstarting your natural healing and recovery process after trauma. It is an effective and relatively 'quick' form of therapy.
When something upsetting happens and your brain doesn't fully process it, that memory can feel "stuck", like it’s still happening or hasn’t lost its emotional charge. EMDR helps unfreeze those memories using something called bilateral stimulation (moving your eyes back and forth, and/or tapping). EMDR helps our brain properly process the upsetting events, this will get rid of problematic symptoms.
Sometimes we can know something is not true or unhelpful, but find ourselves stuck with these beliefs and patterns. EMDR helps to target these. EMDR also helps people increase their connection to positive thoughts and feelings. This enhances resilience and ability to face future events in a more balanced and empowered way. In other words, EMDR helps make the things in your future less daunting.
How is EMDR Different from Traditional Therapy?
Many clients try talk therapy and still feel “stuck.” EMDR is different because it:
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Doesn’t require detailed recounting of every traumatic event
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Helps your brain process trauma naturally
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Can deliver faster results compared to some traditional therapies
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Addresses the root of emotional blocks, not just symptoms
What to Expect in an EMDR Session
There are 8 phases of EMDR therapy. This is a structured process to help you process trauma safely. You will be guided through this process. I will always make sure that you feel safe and ready to move onto the next phase. You will never be asked to start processing traumas until we both feel that you are ready to.
1. History Taking & Treatment Planning
I learn about your history, current challenges, and goals. Together, we identify which memories or experiences to target in EMDR sessions.
2. Preparation
You’re taught techniques to manage distress and stay grounded during therapy. This helps you feel safe and supported throughout the process.
3. Assessment
We identify specific memories to focus on, along with the emotions, thoughts, and physical sensations associated with them.
4. Desensitisation
Using bilateral stimulation (guided eye movements or tapping), we help your brain reprocess the distressing memory. We will reduce the distress around the memory and it will become less emotionally charged.
5. Installation
Positive beliefs or coping statements are strengthened to replace negative ones, helping you feel more empowered and resilient.
6. Body Scan
To ensure the memory is processed, you will be guided to notice any remaining physical tension or discomfort connected to the memory. I will work with you to release it, promoting full emotional and physical processing.
7. Closure
Each session ends with checking in and if needed grounding and relaxation techniques to ensure you feel safe and stable before leaving therapy.
8. Re-evaluation
At the start of the next session, we will check how previous memories and emotional reactions have shifted. This guides the next steps in therapy.
When Should I Consider EMDR Therapy?
EMDR can be particularly helpful if you’re living with the emotional impact of trauma, or if distressing experiences from your past continue to affect how you feel, think, and relate to others, even if those events happened a long time ago.
You might consider EMDR therapy if you:
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Experience intrusive memories, thoughts, emotions, dreams, or flashbacks
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Feel overwhelmed by certain emotions or situations without always knowing why
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Struggle with dissociation, emotional numbness, or shutting down
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Have urges to self-harm, use substances, or act impulsively when overwhelmed
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Notice that past experiences are disrupting your relationships or sense of safety with others
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Live with extreme anxiety, hypervigilance, or ongoing fear
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Find that your feelings are getting in the way of work, connection, or everyday life
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Feel stuck in patterns that make sense in light of your past, but no longer serve you
How does EMDR Work?
EMDR is based on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, which suggests that the brain naturally wants to heal from distressing experiences, just like the body heals from physical wounds.
Normally, when something upsetting happens, your brain processes the experience, learns from it, and stores it in a healthy way, like filing a memory away in the right drawer. But when something is too overwhelming or traumatic, that process can get disrupted. The memory, and the thoughts, feelings, and body sensations linked to it, can get "stuck" or frozen in time.
Your brain hasn’t had the chance to fully make sense of it or move it into long-term memory in a safe way. That’s why certain memories, images, or sensations can keep coming back, even years later, and still feel just as painful.
The goal of EMDR is to unlock and reprocess these memories, helping the brain file them away properly so they’re no longer stuck. Once processed, they can become just part of your past, not something that continues to affect you in the present.
