EMDR recommendations- London/SE

[Mimosa834]

Has anyone ever had EMDR therapy and did it help you? I’m willing to pay to have this privately, recommended therapists would be appreciated.
I have sudden feelings of panic/anxiety which spiral (not all the time, just sometimes) - it affects me physically, my heart races, I feel shaky, jumpy and hyper-aware.

This started when I had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy and life saving surgery. Had more surgery after this and an infertility diagnosis. Got pregnant after several rounds of ivf and lost the baby at 16 weeks gestation, was induced at hospital. I’ve stopped fertility treatment now, it was never successful. It’ll be a decade this year and I’m feeling much better but I still sometimes struggle with feelings of anxiety and hypervigilance. I did CBT which helped with the losses and failures but I think I need some help with managing these waves of anxiety that come up. Someone suggested EMDR but I don’t know how it works or if it would be helpful for what the feelings I’m describing. Any recommendations would be gratefully received. Thank you.

A friend of mine trained in EMDR - Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprogramming. It's a form of trauma-informed psychotherapy - you're definitely experiencing the impact of traumatic life events. I've heard it work wonders for some people and for others it's less helpful. I.e. it can involve looking at rapidly moving lights (that's the eye movement part), something some people can't get on with.

I spoke to my friend about it as I was thinking of having it myself. From talking through some aspects of the technique with her I found out some aspects of it were things other trauma-focused therapists do anyway, not specific to EMDR (e.g. creating a mental safe space, grounding techniques). It may be that a therapist who is trained in working in trauma (not necessarily EMDR) would work just as well for you. Pesso Boyden is another trauma-focused type of therapy I have heard very good things about, if you google it I think there is a list of practitioners.

I've had 8+ years of therapy to help me deal with traumatic events, including some in childhood. Just finding a good trauma-informed therapist and staying with them for 2-3 years helped me immensely. They didn't use EMDR.

Remedial hypnosis is another option. Happy to send you a list of practitioners if you are interested. Generally three sessions are sufficient.

Try The Soke in London