What is EMDR?
EMDR ( Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) has been found to be particularly effective to address the trauma of disturbing memories which cause ongoing distress.
Essentially, these disturbing memories stemming from traumatic experiences, which never seem to shift in intensity or do not diminish over time are seen as dysfunctionally stored traumatic memories.
The aim of EMDR is to help store those memories differently so they no longer cause flashbacks (PTSD), distress, anxiety, fear or OCD. Traumatic memories can significantly reduce your quality of life.
People have an amazing capacity to adapt to situations and experiences and often find creative solutions to cope. Sometimes these can be helpful, and at other times they can hinder progress if they become outdated, such as habitually retreating/withdrawing away from life, developing addictions, avoiding people or places, creating disturbing perceptions of one’s self, and in turn feeling awful about ourselves. If these behaviour adaptations become entrenched this can then lead to feeling that nothing can change. So in essence, the solution that was originally found useful, becomes dysfunctional and stagnates your life.
In my practice I use EMDR alongside a therapeutic relationship. As a qualified EMDR practitioner and Gestalt psychotherapist I bring my clinical experience into the sessions so as to address the underlying causes of your concerns.
Initial assessment session
Together we will explore your past history and explore what you are wanting to change. We then aim to move to a place where you can see that the past “is in the past” and that you can live more freely in the present, unfettered by past hurts.
By separating out how the past has impacted you, we can differentiate what has happened and what is causing you distress from the past.
Some traumatic experiences require more sessions than others and therefore it is not possible to assess immediately how many sessions you will need.
We will engage in an assessment session to appraise what you need and consider a tentative appraisal of the number of sessions you may require. This will be evaluated intermittently. Sometimes 1-2 sessions may be enough depending on the degrees of trauma / event experienced. Sometimes however sessions may be required over a number of weeks/months.
Duration of the initial session
We meet for 90 minutes initially to do an assessment and engage in developing emotional and cognitive resourcing. This means you are assisted with developing support mechanisms – resources to draw upon when experiencing distressing symptoms in your daily life.
Ongoing sessions
These sessions last 75 minutes, weekly.
Together we will explore your past history and explore what you are wanting to change. We then aim to move to a place where you can see that the past “is in the past” and that you can live more freely in the present, unfettered by past hurts. By separating out how the past has impacted you, we can differentiate what has happened and what is causing you distress from the past.
Some traumatic experiences require more sessions than others and therefore it is not possible to assess immediately how many sessions you will need.
We will engage in an assessment session to appraise what you need and consider a tentative appraisal of the number of sessions you may require. This will be evaluated intermittently. Sometimes 1-2 sessions may be enough depending on the degrees of trauma / event experienced. Sometimes however sessions may be required over a number of weeks/months.
Duration of the initial session
We meet for 90 minutes initially to do an assessment and engage in developing emotional and cognitive resourcing. This means you are assisted with developing support mechanisms – resources to draw upon when experiencing distressing symptoms in your daily life.
Ongoing sessions
These sessions last 75 minutes, weekly.
These sessions last 75 minutes, weekly.