Trauma, PTSD and EMDR

EMDR Europe registered

Please take a moment to read this succinct excerpt taken from emdrassociation.org.uk to explain trauma, it’s impact and how EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) works. This is a very informative site if you wish to know more about EMDR or find other EMDR practitioners working close to you.

“When a person is involved in a traumatic event, they may feel overwhelmed and their brain may be unable to fully process what is going on. The memory of the event seems to become “stuck” so that it remains very intense and vivid. The person can re-experience what they saw, heard and smelt and the full force of the distress they felt whenever the memory comes to mind.

EMDR aims to help the brain “unstick” and reprocess the memory properly so that it is no longer so intense. It also helps to desensitise the person to the emotional impact of the memory, so that they can think about the event without experiencing such strong feelings.

It does this by asking the person to recall the traumatic event while they also move their eyes from side-to-side, hear a sound in each ear alternately, or feel a tap on each hand alternately. These side-to-side sensations seem to effectively stimulate the “stuck” processing system in the brain so that it can reprocess the information more like an ordinary memory, reducing its intensity.

The effect may be similar to what occurs naturally during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, when your eyes move rapidly from side to side as the brain processes the events of the day. Some research suggests that EMDR is effective because concentrating on another task whilst processing a distressing memory gives the brain more work to do. When the brain is not giving its full attention to processing the memory, it starts to become less vivid. This allows the person to distance themselves from it and begin to remember the event in a more helpful and manageable way”.

You might also want to watch these YouTubes to get more of a sense of what is involved

What Next?

To help you assess whether you might be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), you can complete the Impact of Events scale (IES) (attachment). At the top of the page, you identify what you think is the traumatic event that is disturbing you in the present and you then rate all the statements in relation to this event. If you score above 35, it is likely that you are experiencing symptoms of PTSD.

(Click here to view IES scale)

If you think EMDR may be appropriate for you, please email or call me to arrange an initial consultation. In this meeting we will explore:

what PTSD symptoms you are experiencing in the present
what in the past you think is contributing to them
what changes you hope to make and
attempt an estimate of how long the EMDR therapy might take.

The length of treatment will depend upon the complexity and severity of the trauma.

Many people want to know before embarking on how long EMDR therapy will take and this is different for each person. A single traumatic event experienced in adulthood, such as traffic accident, traumatic pregnancy or birth, rape, a mugging or other threat to life or psychological integrity might take between 8-16 sessions.

Traumas experienced in childhood, such as sexual abuse, violence and / or neglect are likely to need a longer treatment contract. When this happens, it is often the case that there are many layers of trauma to work through, and time will also often be needed to attend to our relationship to ensure that it feels safe enough to do the work.

If we proceed with EMDR, before actually beginning the processing of a traumatic experience, sessions will be required for me to take a full history, for information exchange and to do some preparation in the form of exercises that will support you to reach an internal feeling of calm, groundedness and/or soothing.

Fees range from £70 to £120 for a 50 minute session, depending on circumstances and type of therapy / supervision.