What is EMDR? Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a unique, powerful therapy that helps people recover from problems triggered by distressing and even traumatic events in their lives. Experiencing such events can cause problems, including flashbacks, upsetting thoughts or images, depression or anxiety.

Who can benefit from EMDR? EMDR is recognised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the World Health Organisation (WHO), which also recognises it as an effective treatment for children. Overall, EMDR can help with a range of mental health conditions in people of all ages including depression and anxiety.

Who can deliver EMDR? EMDR is a complex therapeutic process that should always be delivered by properly trained therapists. In 2022, Guhyasakhi (Bernadette) Carelse completed training with EMDR Works, and became registered with the EMDR Association as a EMDR Therapist in Training.

There are more than 10,000 trained EMDR therapists in the UK alone, and it has helped millions of people worldwide. EMDR is internationally recognised and EMDR therapy is endorsed by many well known organisations, including the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, the NHS (in the UK) and many other bodies.

How does it work? EMDR stops difficult memories causing so much distress by helping the mind (using the neurology of the brain and body) to ‘reprocess’ these experiences. It works with with memory, movements of the body and present moment attention (mindfulness) to heal the legacy of past pain. Thus, it is effective in overcoming and healing from the effects of trauma.

When a person is involved in a traumatic event, they may feel overwhelmed and their brain may be unable to fully process what is going on. The memory of the event seems to become “stuck” so that it remains very intense and vivid. The person can re-experience what they saw, heard and smelt and the full force of the distress they felt whenever the memory comes to mind.

EMDR aims to help the mind to work more freely once again – to “unstick” -and reprocess the memory properly so that it is no longer so intense. It also helps to desensitise the person to the emotional impact of the memory, so that they can think about the event without experiencing such strong feelings.

What happens during a session? During the EMDR session, the person is supported in being able to recall the traumatic event while they also experiencing some side-to-side sensations – moving their eyes from side-to-side, hear a sound in each ear alternately, or feel a tap on each hand alternately. These side-to-side sensations – known as bilateral stimulation – seem to effectively stimulate the “stuck” processing system in the brain so that it can reprocess the information more like an ordinary memory, reducing its intensity.

The effect may be similar to what occurs naturally during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, when your eyes move rapidly from side to side as the brain processes the events of the day. It is possible that EMDR is effective because concentrating on a present moment task whilst processing a distressing memory gives the brain an opportunity to connect the past with the present. In effect the memory is processed in the present context, enabling the person to remember the event with new meaning and in a more helpful and manageable way.

How can I get EMDR and other holistic therapy sessions with Guhyasakhi? To book a session of therapy with Guhyasakhi (Bernadette) Carelse, you are very welcome to contact her directly. To book a therapy session and for more information, see here.