Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing for Trauma - Explained

EMDR Therapy Defined  - The Process and What to Expect
American Psychological Association 2024
Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder – Click Here

EMDR Therapy - Client Considerations (Tim Halls, Praxim)
As a practitioner with Advanced Level 2 Training in EMDR and 22 years of experience using this therapy, I confirm this evidence-based therapy now has wide acceptance for treating trauma and heightened, fear-based anxiety.

As a therapy, I have also found it a useful process to guide the safe practice and informed consent of clientele whilst working through the emotional content of their traumatic memory in a graduated manner to eventually extinguish these emotions.

As with all therapies however, the outcomes are only as good as the training, competence and experience of the practitioner.

Good practice dictates that a practitioner perform a prior assessment to be in a position to determine the likelihood for the client to disassociate in-session.  Where this is the case, safety measures need to be rehearsed with the client prior so they can disengage and withdrawal to a position of safety should they find the emotional content too overpowering.

A prior assessment also cues the therapist to the relationship between emotional states (associations) of the traumatic memory expressed by the client in-session.  In so doing, the therapist can provide relevant contextual feedback, guidance and mindfulness to the client to assist their resolution.

EMDR, like Radical Emotional Tapping (RET) is a graduated, relatively short to medium-term exposure therapy.  Significantly, it works on the relevance of the traumatic memory for the individual in the present, and does not require deep psychoanalysis of past historical incidents other than an appreciation of the origins of the trauma.

Should you have further questions about undertaking this therapy or whether it is suitable for you, please contact me here.