EMDR

therapy

Heal the Past - Live Freely

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Therapy helps you release the hold of traumatic memories, negative beliefs, and emotional pain - so you can feel calm, safe, and empowered in your life.

Accelerate

Trauma Healing

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) was developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. She discovered that certain types of side-to-side eye movements could help people process distressing memories in a new way - reducing their emotional intensity and lingering impact.

The main purpose of EMDR is to help people heal from the emotional wounds of traumatic or disturbing life experiences. Unlike traditional talk therapy, which focuses on analyzing or narrating past events, EMDR directly targets how traumatic memories are stored in the brain and body.

Trauma can leave memories feeling "frozen in time," with all their original fear, shame, pain, or helplessness. EMDR helps the brain reprocess these memories so they can be integrated as just memories - no longer triggering overwhelming emotions or reactions.

By using structured phases and gentle bilateral stimulation (like guided eye movements, tapping, or sounds), EMDR allows the nervous system to safely digest past trauma. This leads to lasting relief, greater emotional regulation, and the ability to live more freely in the present.

Whether someone has experienced a single traumatic event or years of complex, developmental trauma, EMDR offers a deeply transformative path to healing at the root.

All You Need to

Know About EMDR

What is EMDR?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is one of the most effective science-backed therapies for processing and releasing unprocessed traumatic memories that are stored in the nervous system.

It helps individuals rapidly reprocess distressing experiences, reducing the emotional charge and transforming the way the traumatic memory is held in the brain, offering rapid relief from fear, terror and emotional pain.

Key Benefit:

✔ Rapid trauma processing without excessive talking or emotional overwhelm.

Why Use EMDR?

1. To Process Childhood Trauma or Neglect

  • Use case: Emotional neglect, abuse, or feeling unseen/unwanted as a child

  • What to process: Flashbacks, feelings of worthlessness, unmet emotional needs

  • Results: Relief from old emotional pain, stronger sense of self-worth and safety

2. To Heal PTSD or Complex Trauma

  • Use case: Car accidents, medical trauma, assault, prolonged abuse, trauma from natural disasters

  • What to process: Intrusive memories, hypervigilance, freeze/fawn responses

  • Results: Nervous system regulation, fewer triggers, restored inner calm

3. To Release Limiting Beliefs from Core Wounds

  • Use case: “I’m not enough,” “I’m a burden,” “I’m unsafe”

  • What to process: Root memories and internalized beliefs from painful experiences

  • Results: Empowered mindset, new self-perception, emotional freedom

4. To Address Anxiety Rooted in the Past

  • Use case: Social anxiety, panic, fear of abandonment or rejection

  • What to process: Early life events that wired the nervous system for fear

  • Results: Greater confidence, emotional resilience, deeper self-trust

5. To Support Inner Child & Attachment Healing

  • Use case: Feeling unloved, clingy, anxious, or emotionally disconnected

  • What to process: Attachment ruptures and unmet needs

  • Results: Reconnection with the inner child, deeper capacity for love and connection

What It Does:

Through bilateral stimulation (eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones), EMDR activates the brain’s natural healing processes, helping rewire traumatic memories so they no longer trigger distress. This allows for a profound sense of emotional freedom, often in fewer sessions than traditional talk therapy.

Who It’s For:

Ideal for individuals who experience intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, emotional overwhelm, or physical symptoms triggered by past experiences. If you feel “stuck” in cycles of fear, distress, or avoidance, EMDR can help you break free.

When to Use It:

  • The traditional EMDR protocol is great for resolving single-incident or complex trauma that remains emotionally charged.

  • The Attachment-focused EMDR protocol is great for healing relational wounds from earlier life e.g. abandonment, bullying, abuse, rejection, neglect, anger, or others.

  • Addressing intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, or nightmares.

  • Healing deeply conditioned fears, phobias, and specific anxieties.

  • Releasing self-limiting beliefs rooted in past traumatic experiences.

  • Breaking free from unhealthy patterns rooted in early life experiences.

  • Reducing emotional distress around specific events without over-exploring the details.

Best For:

✔ Rapid trauma resolution, Breaking emotional triggers
✔ PTSD & C-PTSD
✔ Childhood trauma & abuse, distressing memories
✔ Anxiety, phobias, & panic disorders, intrusive thoughts, and Addictions
✔ Grief & loss
✔ Performance anxiety & self-doubt
✔ Chronic pain related to trauma
✔ Attachment wounds & relationship trauma

How Quickly Can You See Results?

Many clients experience significant relief within just a few sessions, often reporting that previously overwhelming memories become emotionally neutral, allowing them to move forward with clarity and confidence.

Most clients notice a shift within 1-3 sessions, with significant relief often experienced within 6-12 sessions for single-event trauma. For complex trauma, EMDR offers deep transformation over several months but at a much faster rate than traditional talk therapy because the changes happen somatically inside the brain, body and memory.

Types of EMDR I offer

Standard

EMDR Protocol

  • Structured, 8-phase model.

  • Ideal for single-incident traumas or clear traumatic memories.

  • Structured and efficient.

  • Fast processing when safety and stability are present (typically used with clients with little trauma)

Recognised by the World Health Organization, APA, and Australian Psychological Society as a gold-standard treatment for PTSD and trauma.

EMDR Therapy Brisbane

Attachment-

Focused EMDR

  • Designed for complex PTSD and relational wounds.

  • Emphasizes preparation, safety, and the therapeutic relationship.

  • Respects attachment injuries and developmental wounds.

  • Integrates resourcing, parts work, and nervous system regulation.

  • Builds safety and trust for those with abuse, neglect, or disorganised attachment.

  • Incorporates somatic work, parts work (IFS-informed), and slower pacing.

  • Supports healing of attachment injuries with attuned, compassionate care.

Traditional EMDR’s faster BLS is highly effective for single-event trauma, where the system can tolerate quick processing.

For complex trauma survivors, whose histories often include chronic betrayal, neglect, and emotional injury, this approach can be too activating and feel chaotic or even re-traumatizing.

Attachment-Focused EMDR meets them where they are.

It recognizes that real healing happens not through force, but through attunement, safety, and compassionate, present-moment connection.

Why Attachment-Focused EMDR is Ideal for Complex Trauma

Attachment-Focused EMDR was developed specifically to address these needs.

✅ It prioritizes the therapeutic relationship as a secure base.
✅ Processing is slower, gentler, and more collaborative.
✅ It incorporates resourcing, self-soothing, and relational repair.
✅ It honors developmental trauma by recognizing how early relationships shaped self-worth, trust, and emotional safety.
✅ It’s informed by polyvagal theory and parts work—so it helps clients stay connected to themselves even while processing difficult material.

Attachment-Focused EMDR doesn’t sacrifice the power of EMDR—it simply adapts it.

Instead of racing through memories, it helps survivors feel:
🌿 Seen
🌿 Heard
🌿 Respected
🌿 In control of their pace
🌿 Safe enough to truly let go

🌟 Bottom Line

Traditional EMDR’s faster BLS is highly effective for single-event trauma, where the system can tolerate quick processing.

For complex trauma survivors, whose histories often include chronic betrayal, neglect, and emotional injury, this approach can be too activating and feel chaotic or even re-traumatizing.

Attachment-Focused EMDR meets them where they are.

It recognizes that real healing happens not through force, but through attunement, safety, and compassionate, present-moment connection.

The Phases of

EMDR Therapy

EMDR Therapy Brisbane

EMDR is a structured, safe, 8-phase approach:

  1. History Taking & Goal Setting – We explore your story, goals, and readiness for EMDR.

  2. Preparation – We build safety, you learn self-regulation and coping skills to feel grounded and safe.

  3. Assessment – We identify specific memory targets and associated core beliefs.

  4. Desensitization – Using bilateral stimulation, we reduce the emotional intensity of the distressing memory network.

  5. Installation – We strengthen a positive, empowering core belief about yourself.

  6. Body Scan – We ensure the trauma is released from the body by clearing residual somatic distress.

  7. Closure – We debrief and re-ground after each session.

  8. Re-evaluation – We check in and reassess ongoing progress + plan next targets.

Attachment-Focused EMDR emphasizes extra resourcing, slowing down, and relational safety to honor complex trauma.

Efficacy of EMDR

EMDR Therapy Brisbane

EMDR Efficacy – Key Studies & Evidence

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is one of the most thoroughly studied trauma therapies.
It’s recognized by major health organizations globally (e.g. WHO, APA) as a first-line treatment for PTSD.

✅ Multiple meta-analyses show EMDR is as effective as (or more effective than) trauma-focused CBT.
✅ EMDR often requires fewer sessions to achieve meaningful reduction in PTSD symptoms.
✅ Benefits are durable over time.

📌 1️⃣ Shapiro (1989) – Foundational Study

  • Shapiro, F. (1989). Eye movement desensitization: A new treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 20(3), 211–217.

  • Main point: First controlled study showing significant reduction in traumatic distress using eye movements with exposure.

  • Result: Clients improved significantly more than controls on measures of traumatic distress.
    ✅ Launched systematic research into EMDR.

📌 2️⃣ van der Kolk et al. (2007) – Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT)

  • van der Kolk, B. A., Spinazzola, J., Blaustein, M. E., Hopper, J. W., Hopper, E. K., Korn, D. L., & Simpson, W. B. (2007). A randomized clinical trial of EMDR, fluoxetine, and placebo in the treatment of PTSD. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 68(1), 37–46.

  • Main point: Compared EMDR to fluoxetine (Prozac) and placebo in adults with chronic PTSD.

  • Result:

    • EMDR led to greater and more durable reductions in PTSD symptoms.

    • At 6-month follow-up, EMDR maintained benefits better than medication.
      ✅ Supports EMDR as an effective, non-pharmacological treatment.

📌 3️⃣ Lee & Cuijpers (2013) – Meta-Analysis

  • Lee, C. W., & Cuijpers, P. (2013). A meta-analysis of the contribution of eye movements in EMDR therapy: The role of eye movements in processing emotional memories. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 44(2), 231–239.

  • Main point: Examined whether eye movements themselves add unique benefit.

  • Result:

    • Eye movements significantly reduce emotionality and vividness of traumatic memories.

    • Confirms the mechanistic role of BLS in reprocessing.
      ✅ Validates EMDR’s unique component.

📌 4️⃣ Bisson et al. (2013) – Cochrane Review

  • Bisson, J. I., Roberts, N. P., Andrew, M., Cooper, R., & Lewis, C. (2013). Psychological therapies for chronic PTSD in adults. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (12).

  • Main point: High-quality systematic review comparing multiple therapies.

  • Result:

    • EMDR and trauma-focused CBT both effective for PTSD.

    • EMDR had comparable or better outcomes with often fewer sessions.
      ✅ Endorsed as a first-line treatment.

📌 5️⃣ World Health Organization (2013)

  • WHO Guidelines for the Management of Conditions Specifically Related to Stress. Geneva: World Health Organization.

  • Main point: Systematic evidence review leading to global guidelines.

  • Result:

    • Recommends EMDR as one of two first-line treatments for PTSD (along with trauma-focused CBT).

    • Specifically highlights its evidence base and effectiveness across settings, including low-resource contexts.
      ✅ Global recognition of efficacy.

🌱 ✅ Key Takeaways from the Evidence

✨ EMDR is repeatedly shown to:

  • Produce large, clinically meaningful reductions in PTSD symptoms.

  • Often work faster than standard trauma-focused talk therapy.

  • Maintain gains over time.

  • Be well-tolerated even by diverse populations.

  • Show evidence of a specific mechanism (BLS reducing memory vividness/emotionality).

✨ Major health bodies recommending EMDR:
✅ WHO
✅ American Psychological Association (APA)
✅ International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS)
✅ Australian Psychological Society (APS)

🌿 Links for Reference / Sharing

✔ WHO PTSD Guidelines (2013) PDF
✔ van der Kolk et al. 2007 Study (J Clin Psychiatry abstract)
✔ Cochrane Review Summary
✔ Lee & Cuijpers Meta-Analysis Abstract
✔ Francine Shapiro (1989) Foundational Paper Abstract

Famous people who rave about EMDR 

✅ Prince Harry – Spoke publicly about EMDR in his Apple TV+ series with Oprah Winfrey: Watch Here
✅ Sandra Bullock – Shared that EMDR helped her heal after a home invasion: Article
✅ Jameela Jamil – Openly advocates for EMDR in treating PTSD: Video
✅ Evan Rachel Wood – Credits EMDR with helping her heal from abusive relationships: Interview

EMDR demo session

Is This

for You?

If you are struggling with:


✔ PTSD, C-PTSD, childhood trauma, or emotional neglect
✔ Feeling stuck in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn responses
✔ Chronic anxiety, depression, panic attacks, or nervous system dysregulation
✔ Emotional overwhelm, dissociation, or a lack of self-trust
✔ Deep attachment wounds, unhealthy relationship patterns, or self-sabotage

You don’t have to keep carrying the weight of your past. Healing is possible. And it starts with reconnecting to your body, your emotions, and your true self.

Stories of

Transformation

The best money I’ve spent this year!

This was the first time I felt truly seen and understood. After just one session, I felt a sense of relief I hadn’t experienced in years.

Ariella, Adelaide, Australia

Very different therapy, really enjoyed reconnecting to my body

I thought healing meant talking about my trauma over and over, but this was different. We worked with my body, not just my mind. And wow - things shifted fast. I don’t get stuck in old triggers like before, and for the first time in years, I feel free.

Ali, London, UK

I wish I had found this sooner, would have saved lots of time and money

I was skeptical about somatic therapy, but after my discovery call, I knew this was what I’d been missing. Working with you has been life-changing.

Nina, Epping, UK

Book Your Free

Discovery Call Now

On this free connection call, we’ll explore your healing goals, deepest desires, and what you truly need to feel safe and supported in your journey. This is a space for you to ask any questions, share what’s on your heart, and get to know me just as much as I get to know you. Together, we’ll create a personalised path forward - one that feels aligned, empowering, and deeply held in care.

If you have any questions,

please reach out via the contact form here