EMDR Therapy Harley Street, London

EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing — is a specific therapeutic protocol that uses bilateral stimulation, typically eye movements, taps or sounds, to help the brain process traumatic memories that haven’t been fully integrated.

It’s NICE-recommended for PTSD and supported by extensive research evidence. It also works well for sub-clinical trauma, anxiety with a specific event behind it, and stuck emotional patterns that haven’t responded to talk therapy alone.

How EMDR works

The current understanding is that traumatic memories sometimes get stored in a “raw” form — still emotionally charged, still triggering present-day responses, separate from your other memories. EMDR’s bilateral stimulation appears to allow the brain to process these memories the way it processes ordinary memories, integrating them so they no longer trigger the same intensity of response.

What it’s like

A typical session has structured phases: identifying the memory to work with, building safe-place imagery, the bilateral stimulation work itself, and integration. Sessions can be emotionally intense but are paced carefully — we don’t push faster than your nervous system can handle.

What it works for

• Single-event trauma, such as accidents, assaults or medical procedures.
• Complex trauma, including childhood adversity or prolonged difficult relationships.
• Anxiety with a specific founding event.
• Phobias rooted in a specific incident.
• Stuck grief or bereavement.
• Performance anxiety with a specific origin.

Combined with hypnotherapy

I often use EMDR alongside clinical hypnotherapy. The hypnotic relaxation builds resources between EMDR sessions; EMDR processes the specific memories or patterns that hypnotherapy alone couldn’t reach.