Why I've started training in EMDR

I've recently completed Part 1 of my EMDR training, and I'm really excited to start bringing what I've learned into my work.

Surprisingly, I absolutely loved the training. It was three days in person in Torquay, and I say surprisingly because I'm not generally someone who feels completely at home in big groups or new places. If you put me in a room full of people I don't know and ask me to participate, practice something in front of them and potentially get things wrong in front of everyone, my nervous system will definitely have some thoughts about that!

But the atmosphere on this training was so warm, welcoming and supportive, starting right from the very clear emails with all the practicalities before I even got there, and then a goody bag and thank you card on arrival (I'm very easily won over!), and the fidget objects, which I got through at quite a rate having squished one into oblivion by hour 2 or something.

I met 30 or so people I had never met before and very quickly felt that there was a sense of safety within the group. In fact, several people I had only just met commented that they felt calm, safe and comfortable around me too, which was lovely feedback to receive.

There was plenty of practicing, including some moments that definitely pushed me outside my comfort zone, the goldfish bowl - one of my ideas of hell! But there was also humour, kindness and a genuine sense that we were all there to learn rather than to perform perfectly.

I was also struck by the values behind the training; D r Button's training organisation has a commitment to increasing access to EMDR, including providing free or substantially reduced-cost therapy, and has links with military and veteran communities.

So, what actually is EMDR?

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It is an evidence-based psychotherapy originally developed to help people process traumatic and distressing experiences. It is particularly well established in the treatment of PTSD and is also used with a range of other difficulties connected with distressing or traumatic experiences.

It is based on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, which proposes that our brains have a natural capacity to process experiences and integrate what we learn from them. Sometimes, particularly when something is frightening, overwhelming or happens at a time when we don't have the resources to make sense of it, aspects of the experience can remain insufficiently processed.

The memory can then continue to feel as though it is happening now, rather than being something that happened then.

That might show up as an intense emotional reaction, a physical sensation, a belief about ourselves, or a reaction to something in the present that seems much bigger than the situation would ordinarily warrant.

In other words, sometimes the past is still present.

The AIP model helps guide EMDR towards the experiences and memories that may be maintaining current difficulties, rather than simply trying to manage the symptoms they produce.

Why I'm particularly interested in EMDR for HSPs and neurodivergent people

This is one of the reasons EMDR feels like such a natural addition to my existing work with highly sensitive people and neurodivergent people.

Being highly sensitive or neurodivergent isn't something that needs to be treated or fixed. But the experiences that can come with being different can sometimes leave a significant emotional imprint.

For some people, this might mean years of masking, being told they're too sensitive, feeling different from other people, experiencing rejection or criticism, constantly monitoring how they're coming across, people-pleasing to avoid upsetting anyone, or developing shame around having particular needs.

None of these experiences necessarily look like what we traditionally think of as “trauma”. But they can still leave us with powerful beliefs about ourselves.

I'm too much.

I'm difficult.

I'm not like everyone else.

My needs are a problem.

I have to keep everyone else happy.

There's something wrong with me.

Sometimes those beliefs can continue to influence how we experience ourselves and the world long after the original experiences have passed.

This is where I think EMDR has some really interesting possibilities for HSP and ND clients. Rather than trying to change the person or make them ‘less sensitive’, it can potentially help to process some of the experiences that have become stuck around their sensitivity or neurodivergence, and some of this emotional baggage they may have accumulated along the way can be dropped.

My experience of EMDR

One of the things I particularly valued about the training was experiencing EMDR from the other side of the chair.

During the training I worked on a childhood memory from age about 7, when Father Christmas came to our school Christmas Party and gave everyone a present except me. I felt incredibly sad, disappointed, humiliated and that perhaps I had been bad.

The belief that emerged was something along the lines of:

I don't matter as much as everyone else.

As I processed the memory, with my practice partner, the positive cognition became:

I matter as much as everyone else.

And then my brain decided to give me the extraordinary image of gold dissolving through my body until my actual skeleton became gold. Apparently anything can happen!

It felt incredibly powerful and what struck me most was that something shifted deeply in the way the memory was held and experienced,, and I actually felt in my body that I mattered as much as everyone else.

That distinction between knowing something intellectually and actually feeling it to be true is one of the things about EMDR that I find most fascinating.

What I can offer now

Having completed Part 1, I can begin using the EMDR approach with straightforward cases, within the scope of my training and with appropriate supervision.

This means single-event, medium-distress trauma - for example, a specific accident, frightening incident or other clearly defined distressing event that continues to have an impact.

I haven't suddenly become an accredited EMDR practitioner. The standard EMDR training continues through further parts, followed by supervised practice and, eventually, the opportunity to work towards accreditation.

My next steps are Part 2 and Part 3, alongside developing my clinical experience and supervision.

As the training progresses, I'll learn more about working with more complex presentations and complex trauma, where treatment planning, pacing, stabilisation and case conceptualisation require considerably more thought.

So I'm very much at the beginning of this journey, but it's a beginning I'm really excited about.

If you're unsure whether what you've experienced would fall within the scope of what I can currently offer, you're welcome to get in touch and I’ll be happy to discuss it with you.