EMDR THERAPY

Sometimes when we’ve been exposed to difficult or traumatic life experiences our brains struggle to properly process the memories involved. They’re just too overwhelming. This can result in ongoing problems with flashbacks, nightmares, sleep difficulties, anxiety, fear, and other related symptoms. In fact, it can often feel like we’re right back there in the moment and literally re-living the horror of what took place. This cycle can go on indefinitely and seem at times to be impossible to break out of.

In such situations talk therapy may not be very helpful. This is because traumatic experiences can’t be reasoned away. They involve deep brain states that need to be accessed in order to properly process the memories involved so that they can be bedded down into long term memory once and for all – without all of the associated emotional and sensory overload. Day to day memories are usually processed as we sleep at night but when we’ve experienced something extremely distressing it appears that our brains are unable to properly process that material without some external help.

One such way of accessing those deep brain states is alpha/theta neurofeedback and another is EMDR.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured therapy that encourages the client to briefly focus on the traumatic memory while simultaneously experiencing bilateral stimulation (typically eye movements), which is associated with a reduction in the vividness and emotional intensity associated with the trauma memories.

EMDR therapy is an extensively researched, effective psychotherapy method proven to help people recover from trauma and PTSD symptoms. Ongoing research supports positive clinical outcomes showing EMDR therapy as a helpful treatment for conditions such as anxiety, depression, OCD, chronic pain, addictions, and other distressing life experiences.

EMDR is recognised as a frontline trauma treatment by the World Health Organisation and many other international bodies.