EMDR Therapy – Trauma Processing and Recovery
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is an evidence-based psychotherapy widely used in trauma treatment and increasingly delivered as online EMDR therapy for trauma. Leading international organisations recommend EMDR, including the World Health Organization and NICE in the UK, for working with PTSD and complex trauma.
EMDR helps the nervous system process experiences that were once overwhelming and therefore remained unintegrated. These experiences continue to influence emotions, beliefs, behaviour and relationships long after the original events have passed.
How EMDR works
Traumatic memories are stored differently from ordinary memories. They often remain emotionally charged and easily triggered in the present. EMDR works by activating these memories in a safe, structured way while using bilateral stimulation (most commonly eye movements).
This supports the brain’s natural ability to reprocess and integrate distressing experiences. As a result, memories that once caused strong emotional reactions often lose their intensity and become experienced as ordinary past events. For many people, this change can happen within a relatively small number of sessions.
Preparation and stabilisation are always part of the process. EMDR is not about reliving trauma, but about working with it safely and effectively.
The process can be safely and effectively carried out online, as EMDR is very well adapted for remote work.
What EMDR can help with
Clinicians commonly use EMDR for:
-
PTSD and complex developmental trauma,
-
anxiety and emotional reactivity linked to past experiences,
-
low self-esteem and negative core beliefs,
-
attachment and relational trauma,
-
psychosomatic symptoms,
-
trauma influencing parenting and family relationships.
Many current difficulties are rooted not in the present, but in unprocessed earlier experiences. EMDR allows direct work at this level, rather than repeated symptom management.
EMDR in our practice – a blended approach
In our work, EMDR — including online EMDR therapy — is rarely used in isolation. We integrate it with other therapeutic modalities, depending on the person and the context.
Dorota uses EMDR extensively in her work with parents and families. Very often, children’s difficulties — emotional volatility, anxiety, self-harm or behavioural problems — activate unresolved childhood wounds and negative self-beliefs in adults. EMDR helps parents process their own earlier experiences first, so they can respond to their children from a more stable and grounded place, rather than from triggered emotional patterns. Her systemic and mentalisation-based background supports this work, with EMDR providing focused trauma processing where it is most needed.
Tom combines EMDR with hypnotherapy (including Time Line Therapy), ego-states work, inner-child approaches and coaching. This allows precise work with memory, internal parts and long-standing identity patterns.
In both practices, EMDR functions as a precise intervention tool within a broader therapeutic framework.
EMDR on its own or combined
EMDR can be used as a focused trauma therapy or as part of a wider, individualised therapeutic process. The approach is always adapted to the person, their history and their readiness.
If you would like to know more about EMDR therapy for trauma (in person and online) or how it is used in our work, please contact Dorota or Tom
Here Bessel van der Kolk (a leading world expert on trauma) talks about EMDR.