Trauma Therapy and EMDR

You may already have a sense of your essential goodness and wholeness. Along the way however, this may have become distorted, as you have become shaped around the events, relationships, confusions and pain that came your way.

One idea of therapy is that it means finding out we are not the sum of what has happened to us. We may need help to get past these experiences, and to get back to the unblemished core of ourselves.

When we work with trauma in therapy we are finding a way for these experiences to no longer define us, nor determine who we are or what we can be.

I offer trauma therapy and EMDR to adults individually in Bath.

 

What Trauma Is

Trauma is defined as experiences that cause lasting adverse effects on a person’s mental, physical, social, emotional or spiritual wellbeing, often involving intense stress reactions. It is a natural psychological response to a deeply distressing or overwhelming event that surpasses a person’s ability to cope. It can cause lasting damage to mental, physical, and emotional well-being, often resulting in feelings of fear, helplessness and danger.

We often experience events that challenge and upset us, however, most experiences are processed in such a way that they are understood by our mind and our body as having happened in the past, so while they may be upsetting or uncomfortable memories, they do not interrupt our everyday functioning. When you experience trauma, this processing does not happen. Essentially, trauma is a deeply distressing or overwhelming experience that surpasses a your ability to cope with it. At the time of the traumatic event, some areas of the brain shut down that would usually process the experience and the memory can become ‘stuck’, remaining vivid, intense and extremely distressing. You may be left with difficulty regulating your emotions, you may have nightmares or flashbacks, you may struggle to relax and your sleep may be impacted. You may respond in ways that seem unpredictable, not knowing that you have subconsciously perceived a trigger that has cued your mind and body into a response to threat.

Trauma can happen to adults and also In childhood. As a child, you would have been particularly susceptible to experiences that threatened your sense and safety, and you will have had fewer means to defend or protect yourself or to get the help and support you needed.

 

The Impact of Trauma

Trauma results in some sort of re-experiencing of what happened (this can mean flashbacks and nightmares, or unexplained emotional states and distress). Understandably, it leads people to an avoidance of reminders of the traumatic event which are ways of coping. There are likely to be lasting effects on your patterns of thinking, your beliefs about yourself or the world, and your mood and the emotions you feel are likely to be affected.

The particular way each person is impacted varies. You may recognise that you tend to be more alert and anxious, jumpy, you may get angry readily and you may find it hard to relax and let go. Or, you may feel more detached, less active and alert, depressed, hazy and carry a sense of the unreality of your experience or the world around you. 

Your sleep may be impacted.  You may notice physical symptoms, such as shakiness, headaches or fatigue. Your relationships may be affected, you may find it difficult to trust others or to open up and be dependent on others, or conversely you may find it hard to protect and value yourself, to make and hold boundaries. You can read more about therapy for attachment difficulties here. 

What Helps

Trauma can be processed in lots of ways. It can help to talk through traumatic events safely – for example, with a therapist you have developed a good relationship with. It is important that when you do this you stay grounded and are able to discern what is past and what is happening now – both in your mind and your body, so that you remain regulated and present. This way, the distress associated with traumatic memories is reduced along with the impact of trauma (flashbacks, nightmares, upsetting thoughts or images, depression and anxiety).

 

EMDR

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is an approach that is recommended by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) with a strong evidence base.

During EMDR the traumatic ‘memories’ (which can include distressing images, beliefs, emotional states or physical sensations) are processed and though still remembered, are no longer disturbing and do not interrupt your life as they once did.

EMDR therapy involves a phase of preparation to ensure that you have the resources to stay safe and stable while working with traumatic memories.

We will then move into processing the trauma, which involves you thinking about the memory (the events, images, beliefs, emotions and sensations) while engaging in ‘bilateral stimulation’. Bilateral stimulation simply means that both sides of your body (and therefore your brain) are alternately activated, and the original method for this was by allowing your eyes to follow a moving object, so moving your gaze repeatedly from side to side. Other methods include the body being tapped (by therapist or by yourself) or holding devices that pulsate in each hand. This way, more parts of the brain that process events remain active and engaged and the memory is stored differently in the brain, reducing the distress and related symptoms. Through this process you will be guided by me to move through processing safely. You will shift towards a more positive sense of how you can move into your future with greater resilience, confidence, staying well and at ease.

EMDR was discovered by Francine Shapiro in 1987 and was first used for treating PTSD, though it has now been developed to treat a variety of mental health problems, including phobias, addictions, anxiety and depression.

If you engage with EMDR with me, it will be as part of a broader therapeutic process, building on your self-awareness and insight to allow deeper processing of longstanding issues to support lasting change.