Attachment-focused EMDR for Trauma

I use attachment-focused EMDR as part of an integrative therapy where this is agreed and appropriate. EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing), developed in the 1980s by Dr. Francine Shapiro to treat PTSD, is a therapeutic tool for resolving traumatic memory. It involves a carefully guided process of identifying painful memories that are still causing distress and, with the support of a therapist, re-experiencing them in the safety of the present with the addition of bilateral stimulation (visual, audio and/or tactile) to help the nervous system process them differently.

It is not yet known exactly how EMDR helps reprocess and integrate traumatic memory, but there are now several decades of research demonstrating its effectiveness with a wide range of populations, from combat veterans to survivors of childhood abuse and neglect, and with both “simple” (single-event) and complex (repeated or developmental) traumas. People who find EMDR helpful do not forget the memories that cause them pain. Rather, they tend to report that the memories lose their power to disturb or overwhelm them, becoming instead something more neutral-feeling that happened to them in the past but is over now — a part of their story that can be remembered without being relived.

Attachment-focused EMDR is an evolution of standard EMDR developed by Dr. Laurel Parnell to work more effectively with complex trauma (cPTSD) and developmental trauma, to address the attachment deficits (lack of resilience-building positive relational experiences) that often go with complex trauma and to be more flexible and client-centred than the standard EMDR protocol.

EMDR can be powerful, but it is not a magic bullet. It is not suitable for everyone, and it is not a shortcut for the important work that has always been at the core of talking therapy, including understanding your life history and how it has affected you, developing a secure sense of self, building baseline trust in relationships and being able to identify and tolerate inner experience. I am happy to talk with you about whether EMDR might be right for our work together.