EMDR Trauma Therapy
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment is an additional therapeutic intervention that is offered by Lifecipher Counselling Services.

EMDR is acknowledged by NICE (March 2005) as an effective treatment for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  First developed by Dr Francine Shapiro in 1987 it has become increasingly used, not only for trauma, but also anxiety, panic disorders, pain, sexual dysfunction and a wide range of experientially  based disorders.

Why Normal Counselling Is Not Always Effective for Treating Trauma
Research has indicated that within the brain there is a distinction between two main memory systems. Verbal Accessible Memory (VAM) and Situationally Accessible Memory (SAM).

VAM memory refers to the conscious awareness of facts or events that a person experiences.  Input is required from the higher order brain structures such as the frontal lobes. It has two sub-systems, Semantic Memory and Episodic Memory. Higher order memory storage involving VAM is relatively slow. For reasons of survival the human brain has evolved so as to ensure that life threatening events are quickly and safely stored, which is were SAM is utilized.

As neuroimaging studies have shown, during a highly stressful, or traumatic life threatening event, systems linked to the Amygdala are stimulated, which in turn  suppresses higher order brain functions e.g the Hippocampus and Prefontal cortex. Additionally, that part of the brain called Broca's area, responsible for translating personal experiences into communicable language is turned off. As a result traumatic memories stored in SAM are very difficult to access using normal counselling, which largely relies on clients being able to access and retrieve their memories and recollections. Because EMDR combines processes which can access SAM memory, treatments have been shown to be quicker and more effective.