EMDR Therapy

Eye Movement Desensitisation Reprocessing

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a structured therapy that helps the mind process difficult or stuck memories, so they stop having such a strong grip on how you feel and react today.

Most of the time, when something difficult happens to us, the mind processes it naturally over time — the memory settles, and while we don’t forget it, it no longer feels raw or overwhelming. Sometimes, though, a memory doesn’t get processed properly. It stays “stuck,” and can keep resurfacing as flashbacks, anxiety, low mood, or a strong physical or emotional reaction to things that remind you of it, even years later.

EMDR works directly with these stuck memories. Rather than asking you to talk through every detail of what happened, it uses a method called bilateral stimulation — usually guided eye movements, though taps or tones can be used instead — while you briefly bring the memory to mind. This appears to help the brain do what it would naturally do with a properly processed memory: file it away as something that happened in the past, rather than something that still feels like it’s happening now.