EMDR
EMDR is less well understood than it deserves to be. This page explains what it actually involves, what it can help with, and what to expect from sessions.
EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing — is a structured therapeutic method developed by American psychologist Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. It was originally created to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, and has since been applied successfully to a much wider range of difficulties.
The starting point is an observation that most of us recognise intuitively: some experiences don't seem to fade the way they should. Long after an event has passed, the memory of it can still feel raw, intrusive, or destabilising — as though the mind never quite finished processing what happened. Shapiro's insight was that this "stuckness" is neurological as much as psychological, and that certain kinds of bilateral stimulation — alternating activation of both sides of the body — can help the brain complete that unfinished processing.
In a session, this typically means tracking the therapist's moving hand or a light bar with your eyes, or receiving alternating taps or audio tones through headphones, while holding a specific memory, thought, or feeling in mind. Researchers are still working out exactly why this helps. What is better established is that people often find the memory becomes less emotionally intense, and that a more settled perspective on it becomes possible.
What is EMDR therapy?
EMDR is one of the more thoroughly researched therapies available, and it is included in national and international clinical guidelines for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in adults. It is also available through the NHS for PTSD, via specialist trauma services.
Those guidelines come with conditions attached, around the type of trauma, how long ago it happened, and how many sessions are usually expected. If you want to know whether what you’re going through falls within what the research supports, that’s something we can look at together before deciding anything.
These guidelines concern PTSD specifically. EMDR is used for other difficulties too, which I come to below, but the evidence there is thinner.
Is EMDR evidence-based?
EMDR was developed for trauma, and that is where the evidence is strongest, whether a single incident, such as an accident, assault or medical event, or complex, repeated, or childhood trauma.
It is also used for:
Anxiety and panic attacks
Phobias
Grief and bereavement
Persistent self-critical beliefs or patterns of thought
Emotional responses that feel disproportionate or hard to control
Chronic pain with a significant psychological or emotional dimension
Research into these applications is still developing, and the evidence is not as robust as it is for PTSD. Whether EMDR is a sensible starting point for any of them is something we would work out together.
An initial assessment is always the starting point. EMDR isn’t the right fit for everyone, and part of my role is to establish whether it is likely to help before we begin, and to say so if I think another approach, or another professional, would serve you better.
What can EMDR help with?
EMDR follows a structured eight-phase protocol. Rather than being a single technique, it is a complete therapeutic process with a clear beginning, middle and end.
Assessment We begin by mapping out your history and identifying the specific experiences, memories or symptoms you want to address. This gives us a baseline to work from and return to as the work progresses.
Stabilisation Before any processing begins, we build a set of internal resources — grounding techniques, a mental safe space, ways of managing strong emotions if they arise. Nothing is rushed. Processing only starts once you feel steady enough to approach the material.
Processing With bilateral stimulation underway, you hold the target memory or difficulty in mind and allow your attention to follow wherever it naturally goes — other memories, images, physical sensations, shifts in how you feel. Your role is to notice, not to analyse. Mine is to guide the pace and check in between each set of stimulation.
Closure and review Every session ends with a grounding phase before you leave. In subsequent sessions, we review what has shifted since the last appointment before continuing the work.
The number of sessions varies considerably. A single contained issue may resolve in a small number of appointments; more complex or longstanding material takes longer. We keep that assessment ongoing throughout.
What happens in a session?
I use EMDR as a focused, targeted intervention — working on a specific issue rather than as a general background thread.
Clients come to EMDR with me in different ways. Some arrive knowing exactly what they want to address, and EMDR is the whole of the work. Others are already in counselling with me, and we identify a point where EMDR would help us go deeper into something specific — in which case we pause the broader therapeutic work, complete the EMDR, and return to counselling afterwards. Occasionally, following an initial assessment, EMDR turns out to be the right starting point, with counselling following on from it if needed.
Sessions are 50 minutes and are available in person in West Hampstead and Paddington/Lancaster Gate in London, and online.
If you would like to find out whether EMDR might be the right approach for you, I’m happy to answer any questions before you decide to go ahead.
My approach to EMDR
If you would like to find out whether EMDR might be the right approach for you, I am happy to answer any questions before you decide to go ahead.