EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing,  is a trauma therapy that can help your brain and body process experiences that still feel stuck.
 

When something difficult, frightening or overwhelming happens, our brains don’t always get a chance to fully process what happened. Sometimes the memory can continue to feel very present, even when we know we’re safe now. This might show up as intrusive memories, strong emotional or physical reactions, nightmares, avoidance, or feeling like you’re back in the experience again.
 

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a structured therapy that helps your brain make sense of these experiences so they feel less overwhelming and more like something that happened in the past.
 

What happens in EMDR?

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EMDR isn’t about having to tell your whole story in detail or repeatedly talk through everything that happened.
 

Together, we first spend time understanding what’s brought you to therapy, building a sense of safety and developing strategies to help you feel grounded.

When you’re ready,  we use something called bilateral stimulation (BLS). This simply means gently alternating your attention from one side to the other. You might follow my fingers with your eyes, listen to alternating sounds, or use small buzzers that vibrate gently from side to side.
 

While you focus on the experience, the BLS helps support the processing of the memory. For many people, the memory gradually becomes less intense and feels more like something that happened in the past, rather than something that is happening right now.

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What can EMDR help with?

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EMDR can be helpful for single-incident trauma, ongoing or complex trauma, PTSD and other experiences that continue to have an impact on how you feel, think or respond.

It can also be useful when you know something has affected you, but find that talking about it over and over doesn't quite shift how it feels. 
 

Who is EMDR for?

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EMDR can be used with children, adolescents and adults. The way we work looks different depending on your age, development, communication style and what feels comfortable for you.

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With children and younger adolescents, EMDR can be play-based and creative. We might use drawing, movement, games, toys, sensory activities or other creative ways of helping them understand and process what they’ve experienced. There’s no expectation that a child needs to be able to explain everything in words.

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For older adolescents and adults, EMDR can still include creative elements, and is a collaborative space for talking, creativity, movement or other ways of working that suit them. The phases of EMDR remain the same, focusing on increasing coping resources and using BLS to process the memories that have been identified to address.
 

You don’t need to have a particular diagnosis or be able to clearly identify what is “wrong”. EMDR may be helpful when an experience, relationship or period of life continues to affect the way you feel, think, respond or connect with others.

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Do I have to be ready to talk about everything?

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No.

EMDR is a collaborative process and we go at a pace that feels manageable for you. You remain in control of what we work on and when. Sometimes we might spend quite a bit of time building skills and creating a sense of safety before doing any processing.

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At Paperbark Grove Collective, I don’t see therapy as a one-size-fits-all process. EMDR can be adapted to you, your experiences and the way your brain and body work.