EMDR

EMDR is a form of psychological therapy which uses “bi-lateral stimulation” (side-to-side eye movements, tones or taps) to facilitate our brains’ and the mind-body connection’s natural capacity to recover from traumatic experiences. It’s an evidence-based therapy which was first developed - and is now recommended by NICE (the National Institute of Health & Care Excellence) - to treat PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), but is also showing promise in treating other difficulties including social anxiety, phobias, addictions and physical health problems including pain conditions.

EMDR is a carefully-administered and comprehensive therapy with a wide range of techniques to deal with past, present and future.

Gentle, preparatory “Resourcing” techniques are used to build a sense of safety, stability and containment prior to any EMDR Reprocessing work to sort through disturbing memories. Once such memories are no longer causing disturbance, more adaptive, healthy ideas, skills and behaviours are strengthened through “Installation” work to increase confidence coping in future.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is confusingly-named as it does not always involve eye movements. “Bi-lateral stimulation” refers to using side-to-side stimuli  - which might be eye movements, but can take other forms such as listening to tones or following carefully-paced taps.

The different forms of bi-lateral stimulation mean that EMDR can still be offered to people with sight difficulties or who struggle to “track” side-to-side (e.g. in some forms of dyslexia and visual stress).

It is thought this bi-lateral stimulation helps the brain’s cortex (the outer layer of grey matter) sort through – or “reprocess” – difficult memories. Although EMDR is now evidenced as an effective treatment for PTSD, exactly how bi-lateral stimulation helps is still being studied. Some of the main possibilities are:

• By stimulating the left and right sides, or hemispheres, of the brain, the cortex (the part of the brain which sorts through and “files” information to make helpful sense of it) is supported to stay online when going near distressing memories might otherwise cause it to be overwhelmed by the more primal brain regions responsible for helping us survive trauma;

• “Dual attention” – having two things to concentrate on at once – may also help brain’s cortex avoid being overwhelmed when difficult memories are brought to mind;

• Some theories suggest that the bi-lateral stimulation mimics REM (Rapid Eye Movement) stage of sleep which is thought to play a role in sorting memories effectively.

Many of us use forms of bi-lateral stimulation naturally without being aware of doing so  – e.g. walking, running, knitting and writing poetry all involve both sides of the brain’s cortex working together, and many people report feeling less distressed after doing these things following tricky experiences. It has been suggested that in our evolution, nomadic hunter-gatherer societies would often dance and drum while telling the day’s stories and that our brains evolved to harness bi-lateral stimulation as an aid to sorting through memories.

In EMDR Therapy, bi-lateral stimulation is used in a very careful, responsive way to support people re-processing distressing memories by a highly-trained and supervised therapist.

I completed Part 1, 2 and 3 of my training in EMDR Therapy with Alexandra Richman – a training approved by EMDR UK, EMDR Europe and EMDR International Association. I have also undertaken an approved Part 1 Child EMDR training. I am a member of EMDR UK though I have not yet completed the accreditation process; I can offer EMDR therapy to adults and children, but cannot offer supervision to other EMDR therapists at this stage.