The founders of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) provided a ground-breaking therapy to help people overcome the negative thoughts, feelings and cycles of behaviour that cause distress in those that have experienced trauma, PTSD and other related difficulties.
A similar statement could be made for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), which is based on the most recent findings in neuroscience about how we process memories, and focuses on healing your trauma by helping you (re)process difficult memories so that they no longer cause distress.
But how does EMDR work?
EMDR Therapy in Newcastle
Just like a physical trauma, mental and psychological trauma sometimes needs help to heal.
By considering or engaging with EMDR you are embarking on a new but proven therapy that uses a variety of techniques, including eye-movement, tapping and other ways of processing sensory experiences to help you overcome painful memories.
EMDR is recognised as an approach that is recognised globally, including by the World Health Organisation and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), as an effective way to treat traumatic memories that occur with trauma or PTSD.
At present, the effectiveness of EMDR is also being tested for other problems such as anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and other problems.
How Does EMDR for Trauma & PTSD Work?
It is believed that EMDR utilises similar biological mechanisms that occur during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, wherein eye movements occur that help us process memories and experiences in order to reduce the traumatic and negative emotional impact that they might hold.
During EMDR therapy sessions, your EMDR therapist will guide you through the process and may use special tools (such as lights) for you to look at to help your eyes with the movement, their finger, or even other approaches such as sequences of hand tapping might be used to help stimulate your brain into reprocessing your experiences.
Throughout EMDR therapy in Newcastle or online with us, your specially trained EMDR Psychologist or EMDR therapist will ensure that you are guided through the whole process in a compassionate way so that you can overcome your difficulties as effectively as possible and function better again in day to day life.
Benefits of Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing (EMDR)
One core benefit of EMDR is that you will not be required to speak about your trauma in as much detail or as frequently as in usually talking therapies.
Though approaches such as CBT and other effective talking therapies can help people overcome trauma and PTSD, for some people the traumatic experience might be too upsetting or feel too shameful to go over multiple times.
The benefits of EMDR for people where the memories are too upsetting to discuss in great depth go without saying, and not having to extensively verbalise your trauma and still come out with positive results is a great feature of EMDR.
Contact us about EMDR in Newcastle or EMDR Online
In many cases reaching out is the first step to healing. Our team of experienced Psychologists and EMDR Therapists are able to offer EMDR online or face to face at our clinic in Newcastle upon Tyne.
If you think that EMDR therapy might be able to help you with your difficulties, to contact a member of our team call us on 07966 645 198.
Best wishes,
Dr Stuart Sadler
Lead Clinical Psychologist
