Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing Therapy
(EMDR)
EMDR is an integrative psychotherapy that incorporates elements from many different approaches. It presumes that a current difficulty you are experiencing is the result of a previous life experience that your brain did not manage to process appropriately, thereby causing symptoms in the present. In sessions, we help you process these life experiences, so they no longer cause disturbance in your life now.
The main technique involves choosing some memories linked to a problem area and holding these in mind whilst engaging in specific eye movements. Your mind will wander to associated thoughts, feelings or images, which you and your therapist will explore once you have finished the eye-movements.
There is some debate about how EMDR works, but it seems to involve a “dual-attention” process, which helps you to stay focused on the present, whilst re-experiencing the past. This seems to produce a shift in how past events impact on you in the here-and-now, making your target problem area less distressing to deal with in everyday life.
EMDR was developed as a treatment for people who had suffered a trauma, but has been extended to a wide range of psychological problems over the last 20 years. It works best if you can identify some core memories or events that might have had a bearing on your difficulties (for example, being bullied as a child, a shameful work event, or a bereavement).
For more information, please go to: www.emdr-europe.org/
The Lighthouse Psychology Practice