Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a structured psychotherapy approach designed to help individuals process and heal from traumatic memories. It aims to reduce the emotional intensity associated with distressing experiences, enabling clients to gain new perspectives and emotional relief.
EMDR utilises the natural healing ability of your body. Eye movements, similar to those during REM sleep are recreated by guided eye movements.
Experiences during a session may include changes in thoughts, images and feelings; and with repeated sets of eye movements, the trauma memory may change in such a way that it loses its painful intensity, becoming a more neutral memory of an event in the past. Other associated memories may also be desensitised and re-processed at the same time, resulting in significant changes in emotional distress, physical symptoms and core beliefs.
A full assessment of the suitability of EMDR would need to be conducted including some history taking and an initial resource building treatment phase will be required before trauma processing can begin.
EMDR therapy is recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the
National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).
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