EMDR

EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing — is a structured therapy developed specifically for traumatic memory. It is recommended by NICE for post-traumatic stress disorder in adults, and it is among the more thoroughly researched trauma treatments available.

The working idea is that some memories never get processed and filed away in the ordinary manner. They stay raw and current, so that remembering feels less like recalling something that is over and more like living through it again. EMDR appears to help the brain finish that processing, so the memory becomes something that happened rather than something still happening.

In a session you bring the memory to mind while following a repeated left-right movement or sound, in short sets, pausing after each one to notice whatever has shifted. It is a strange procedure to describe and considerably less strange to do. You stay in control throughout, you are not hypnotised, and you do not have to narrate the memory in detail — which is a relief to most people who ask.

EMDR is not a quick fix and it is not the right starting point for everyone. It follows a defined protocol that begins with preparation and stabilisation, and we do not move to processing until there is enough steadiness to make that safe. That preparation phase is not a delay before the real work; it is part of it.

EMDR can be delivered effectively online, using on-screen movement or sound in place of in-person cues.