Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing

EMDR is recognised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the World Health Organisation (WHO), which also recognises it as an effective treatment for children.

When a person is involved in a traumatic event, they may feel overwhelmed, and their brain may be unable to fully process what is going on. The memory of the event seems to become “stuck” so that it remains very intense and vivid. The person can re-experience what they saw, heard and smelt and the full force of the distress they felt whenever the memory comes to mind.

EMDR aims to help the brain “unstick” and reprocess the memory properly so that it is no longer so intense. It also helps to desensitise the person to the emotional impact of the memory, so that they can think about the event without experiencing such strong feelings.

It does this by asking the person to recall the particular event while they also move their eyes from side-to-side. These side-to-side sensations seem to effectively stimulate the “stuck” processing system in the brain so that it can reprocess the information more like an ordinary memory, reducing its intensity.

EMDR therapy is an extensively researched method proven to help people recover from trauma and other distressing life experiences, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and panic disorders.

One of the benefits of EMDR therapy is it does not require talking in detail about the distressing issue or completing homework between sessions so is well suited to children. EMDR therapy, rather than focusing on changing the emotions, thoughts, or behaviours resulting from the distressing issue, allows the brain to resume its natural healing process.

EMDR therapy is designed to resolve unprocessed traumatic memories in the brain. For many clients, EMDR therapy can often be completed in fewer sessions than other
psychotherapies