Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing EMDR

EMDR Therapist in Guildford

EMDR is a psychotherapy treatment that was originally designed to alleviate the distress associated with traumatic memories. The theory behind EMDR is that many psychological difficulties are the result of distressing life experiences which felt overwhelming at the time, and consequently have not been stored in memory properly. These traumatic memories may need some help to become processed, and EMDR is one way to do this.

EMDR treatment is a structured and protocol-based approach which includes the identification and accessing of traumatic memories and other adverse life experiences in order to process them and to offer a different way of responding and thinking about these memories. After treatment the distress associated with difficult memories is relieved and new beliefs around these events formed. 

I will assess your suitability for this approach and prepare you for this trauma work. Once preparation work is completed, trauma targets are identified and we work through these using bilateral stimulation (BLS). BLS can include eye movements, hand-tapping or audio stimulation.

EMDR involves working with:

(1) processing the past events that have laid the groundwork for dysfunction, forging new associative links with adaptive information (these links can be blocked without processing);

(2) the current circumstances that elicit distress are targeted, and internal and external triggers are desensitized;

(3) imaginal templates of future events are incorporated, to assist the client in acquiring the skills needed for adaptive functioning.