EMDR therapy

What is EMDR?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) has proven to be an effective treatment for PTSD and other trauma. EMDR is an evidence-based approach and is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). EMDR is a therapy that is used to help people recover from distressing events and the problems arising from those events such as flashbacks, upsetting thoughts or images, depression or anxiety. Although EMDR was initially developed to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but EMDR can, and is increasingly used, to treat other issues such as depression, anxiety, emotional abuse.

How does EMDR work?

When a distressing or traumatic event occurs, we may feel overwhelmed and in turn, our brains are unable to fully process what is happening. When this happens the memory of the event can becomes ‘stuck’ in the brain and we then re-experience the event in full force whenever the memory comes to mind. EMDR aims to ‘unstick’ the memory so that is can be reprocessed so that it is no longer experienced in the same way.