EMDR Therapy

This is the work EMDR is best known for. It covers the single events most people picture when they hear the word trauma: a car accident, an assault, a workplace incident, a birth that went badly, a sudden death. It also covers people whose job puts them in front of these things repeatedly, such as emergency services, defence and health workers.

Complex trauma is different. It comes from things that went on for a long time, often in childhood: neglect, abuse, bullying, a parent who was unpredictable. There may be no single event to point to. What you have instead is a set of reactions and beliefs about yourself that formed early and never got updated.

A lot of anxiety has a history. Panic attacks that started after a particular event. A fear of driving since the accident. A health worry that took hold after a scare. Where the anxiety can be traced back to an experience, EMDR can be used to target that experience directly.

For OCD, EMDR is used alongside standard treatment such as exposure and response prevention. It is not a replacement for it. Where the core fear driving a compulsion links back to something that happened, that memory can be targeted.

Phobias connected to an incident, such as a dog attack, a near drowning, a car crash or a public humiliation, are a common referral for EMDR. The work goes back to where the fear started.

Not all trauma comes from one catastrophic event. For many people the damage came from years of relationships that weren't safe: a parent who wasn't emotionally there, a partner who was controlling, betrayal, abandonment, being the one who always had to hold it together.

This tends to show up as anxious attachment, fear of being left, trouble trusting people, or picking the same kind of partner over and over. Behind it are beliefs that formed early. "I'm too much." "I always get left." "It isn't safe to depend on anyone."

EMDR targets the memories where those beliefs started, and works on the feeling as well as the thought. People often come to this work after talking therapy has helped them understand the pattern.

Medical trauma comes from medical events, procedures or environments. Surgery, an ICU stay, a serious diagnosis, a traumatic birth, a long stretch of not knowing what was wrong. A procedure can go perfectly and still leave you with panic at check-ups, a fear of hospitals, or a deep distrust of anyone in scrubs.

EMDR targets the specific moments that were distressing: waking in pain, being told the news, being unable to move or speak. You don't have to relive the whole admission.

It is also used with people living with a chronic condition, where the difficult experience is ongoing and unpredictable. EMDR does not treat the physical illness. The work is about the distress that comes with it.

Grief is not something to be fixed, and most grief does not need therapy. Sometimes it doesn't ease. A death that was sudden or violent. Not getting to say goodbye. A loss mixed with guilt, or with a complicated relationship. A miscarriage or stillbirth. The end of a relationship you didn't see coming.

In these cases EMDR is used to target the parts of the loss that stay intrusive, such as the moment you found out, the last conversation, the image you can't shift. The work focuses on those specific moments so that grieving the loss itself has room to happen.

Not all depression starts with an event, but sometimes it does. A loss, a relationship ending, a period of being treated badly, a failure that stuck. When low mood traces back to something that happened, and especially when it keeps coming back after other treatment, the memories behind it are a reasonable target.

Depression in people who come for EMDR often carries beliefs like "I'm a failure", "nothing I do matters" or "I'll always be alone". These usually formed at a specific time, and that is where the work goes.

EMDR is used alongside the usual approaches to depression. It is not a replacement for them.