Mic Austen Counselling and Psychotherapy

Accredited counselling/psychotherapy for individuals and couples in Brentwood, Shenfield, Chelmsford, Upminster, Hornchurch, Billericay in Essex and Paddington, Maida Vale, Little Venice in Central and West London

EMDR and Supervision

EMDR

EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing. It is a psychotherapeutic procedure that was originated and developed by Dr Francine Shapiro in the United States in 1987.

EMDR was originally designed to treat traumatic or "dysfunctional" memories and experiences and their psychological consequences, and the procedure has mainly been used in the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. However EMDR has been increasingly used over the years to treat e.g. grief, phobias, test and performance anxiety, anxiety and panic disorders, pain, sexual dysfunction, and a wide range of experientially based disorders.

In EMDR, the therapist produces bilateral stimulation usually in the form of eye movements, but also sometimes in the form of bilateral auditory or tactile stimulation. There is a great deal of evidence this speeds up the reprocessing of disturbing emotional or traumatic material and at the same time helps the client feel safer in making contact with traumatic material.

In EMDR, the therapist will always firstly carry out a careful psychological assessment of whether EMDR would be suitable for the problem(s) presented, and will elicit a memory representing the problem. The client will be asked for a picture that represents the memory, a negative belief that they have about themselves in relation to the memory, and to notice associated physical sensations. After this a number of sets of eye movements or other bilateral stimulation are commenced, and after each set of eye movements the therapist will ask the client what they noticed. Typically, the images, emotions, and sensations experienced change through this process. At some point these changes become more positive and adaptive as the client reprocesses old dysfunctional information and connects with presently held adaptive and functional information. The aim is always to enable the client to recollect the original traumatic material without disturbance and to have new and more adaptive beliefs about themselves in relation to the experience.

With "simple" or "one off" traumas or experiences in adult life, EMDR can be remarkably rapid in its effects, and average treatment times for these kinds of problems are from 3 to 5 sessions. With more "complex" or multiple traumas treatment can take much longer but the evidence that we have to date suggests that EMDR is the most efficient and rapid psychotherapeutic procedure available for the treatment of traumatic memories and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. (Taken from www.emdr.org.uk)

Supervision

I believe that good supervision is a crucial part of establishing and maintaining ethical practice and high standards of clinical practice. Supervision allows us to make sense of our work with clients, and to stand back and reflect on our practice.

I trained as a supervisor at the CCPE in 2006 and have been running supervision groups for trainee psychotherapists in voluntary placements and working with both qualified and trainee counsellors and psychotherapists in private practice.

I offer supervision from an Integrative model – including psychodynamic, humanistic, existential, gestalt, TA and transpersonal models.

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