EMDR Therapy in Surrey - Forward Mind Counselling

EMDR at Forward mind counselling

EMDR offers a path toward healing even when memories feel too painful to revisit or relive out loud. Through EMDR, many people experience fewer flashbacks, less anxiety, and greater emotional stability. EMDR therapy can help you change the way you view your world after trauma, promoting healing and resilience.

At Forward Mind Counselling, our experienced and caring counsellors offer EMDR therapy for children, teens, and adults. If you have any questions or would like to schedule your first session, please contact us or book online today.

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a trauma-focused therapy that helps the brain reprocess traumatic memories so they feel less distressing over time.

Past traumatic experiences can affect a person’s current mental and emotional state, making it important to address these issues in therapy. EMDR can help with troubles such as difficulty sleeping, stress, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, or strong emotional or physical reactions linked to past experiences. EMDR can help reduce the emotional intensity of distressing memories, allowing you to move forward with more clarity and control.

How EMDR Therapy Works

In eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy, you recall a distressing memory while focusing on a form of bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements or tapping. This bilateral stimulation supports your brain’s natural healing process, helping the brain process traumatic memories by facilitating new pathways for understanding and integrating past experiences.

During the session, an EMDR therapist will help clients focus on the present moment while processing past experiences, allowing the brain to complete unprocessed emotional responses and making the memory feel less charged emotionally. EMDR therapy is designed to help reduce symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, and constant emotional reactivity. It can work without requiring a detailed discussion of the traumatic event itself.

What Can EMDR Therapy Help With?

EMDR therapy supports healing from various mental health and trauma-related issues. It is especially useful when past experiences continue to affect your emotions, behaviour, or relationships in the present.

At Forward Mind Counselling, we use EMDR to support clients dealing with:

Anxiety Disorders

EMDR can help reduce the intensity of anxious thoughts and physical symptoms by targeting the underlying memories or experiences that contribute to ongoing fear and worry. It can support individuals who feel constantly on edge, overwhelmed, or stuck in patterns of avoidance. Over time, EMDR can help retrain the brain’s response to stress, creating more space for calm and focus.

Phobias

For people with specific phobias, EMDR can help process the original memory or experience that triggered the fear response. Rather than relying only on exposure-based techniques, EMDR addresses the emotional charge behind the fear.

Anger

EMDR helps individuals explore the roots of anger, especially when strong emotional reactions are tied to past experiences or unresolved trauma. By reducing the emotional intensity of those memories, clients often gain more control over their responses and feel less reactive in everyday situations.

Relationships

EMDR supports healthier relationships by helping clients work through past relational trauma, attachment wounds, or trust issues. As the emotional impact of earlier experiences is reduced, clients often feel safer, more grounded, and better able to connect with others.

PTSD

For individuals experiencing PTSD, EMDR helps reprocess memories that cause flashbacks, nightmares, or heightened alertness. Over time, the memory becomes less triggering, and symptoms often decrease in both frequency and intensity.

Chronic Stress

When the body and mind remain in a prolonged state of tension due to unresolved events, EMDR can help reset the stress response. Clients often report feeling more balanced, less reactive, and better able to cope with daily demands.

Insomnia

EMDR helps address the unresolved stress or trauma that may contribute to nightmares and/or difficulty falling or staying asleep. By calming the nervous system and reducing mental replay, many clients experience improvements in sleep quality and restfulness.

Addiction

For individuals using substances to manage emotional pain or distress, EMDR can help reduce the emotional weight of past experiences that fuel the cycle. As trauma is processed, clients often find it easier to make healthier choices and sustain recovery.

EMDR is one part of a comprehensive approach we use for trauma counselling. At Forward Mind Counselling, we often use EMDR alongside other evidence-based therapies such as Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF‑CBT) and Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).

What to Expect in EMDR Therapy

Our sessions typically follow these stages:

Step 1) Preparation and assessment

We start with a 50‑minute session to build trust, clarify goals, and identify how trauma affects your daily life. During these initial sessions, we also work together to set goals for your treatment plan.

Step 2) Safe gradual processing

When you’re ready, we move into EMDR. Each session involves revisiting memories in small, manageable steps using bilateral stimulation, always at a pace you control.

Step 3) Strategies for Success

After processing, we use sessions to build strategies that help you integrate changes and move forward with more balance and emotional control.

You don’t need to talk in detail about your trauma or a specific traumatic event if that feels too difficult. EMDR therapy often helps reduce emotional intensity more gently than other therapies.

Why Choose EMDR at Forward Mind Counselling?

At Forward Mind Counselling, our EMDR therapists bring extensive expertise in psychology and utilize evidence-based therapeutic approaches. We adapt EMDR to your needs and pace. You set the pace, and you choose how much to work with. Sessions always begin with building emotional safety. You remain in control throughout the process.

The most important part of EMDR therapy is first assuring you feel safe and comfortable.

The goal is not to erase traumatic events, but to help you feel less defined by your past and more able to engage in the present. Everyone’s healing journey is different. We are here to help guide you along your path to healing, whatever that may look like.

EMDR Therapy Surrey