EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) therapy in Forest Hill, London
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a gentle, evidence-based therapy that uses guided eye movements to help your brain naturally process and heal from painful memories, trauma, and anxiety. It doesn't require you to talk in detail about past events, instead, it helps reframe how those memories live in your mind today so you can finally move forward.
Understanding EMDR Therapy: When we experience a traumatic, highly stressful, or overwhelming event, our brains can sometimes struggle to process the information correctly. Instead of being stored away in our long-term memory as a thing of the past, that memory gets "stuck" in its raw, emotional form. Years later, a specific trigger—a sound, a sight, or a feeling—can cause that old memory to flood back, making you feel like you are reliving the stress or danger all over again.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a specialized, evidence-based therapy designed to help the brain unstick those memories so they can finally heal.
How Does It Actually Work? Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR doesn't require you to describe a painful past event in meticulous, agonizing detail. Instead, we focus on the emotional toll the memory takes on you today. During an EMDR session, you will be asked to hold a specific memory or feeling in mind while following a rhythmic, side-to-side pattern with your eyes (or using alternating left-right tapping/audio tones). This process is called bilateral stimulation. This rhythmic movement mimics the natural brain processing that happens during REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. It effectively lowers the emotional volume of the memory, allowing your brain to re-register the event as a historical fact rather than an active, current threat.
What Can EMDR Help With? While EMDR is widely known as a gold-standard treatment for PTSD, its unique approach to processing emotional distress makes it highly effective for a wide range of challenges, including:
Trauma & PTSD: Processing childhood adversity, accidents, grief, or single-incident traumas.
Anxiety & Panic: Calming hypervigilance and the physical symptoms of chronic panic.
Performance Anxiety: Overcoming deeply rooted self-doubt, creative blocks, or fear of failure.
Phobias: Desensitizing intense, irrational fears that disrupt daily life.
The ultimate goal of EMDR isn't to make you forget what happened. It is to take away the emotional sting of the memory, leaving you with the resilience and wisdom of a survivor who is ready to move forward.
Practitioners offering EMDR (Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) therapy
- Dr Marcelo Matias — Doctor in Counselling Psychology and Psychotherapy
Reviewed by Dr Karen Gonzalez, Integral Psychotherapist
Last reviewed:
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