Evidence Based Treatment Options: CBT and EMDR

Cognitive
Behavioural
Therapy
(CBT)

What is CBT?

CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) is a practical, evidence-based approach that explores how our thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are all linked. It helps you become more aware of your thinking patterns — especially the automatic thoughts we often accept without question.

Using CBT, you can learn to challenge unhelpful thoughts and change habits like:

  • Avoidance

  • People-pleasing

  • Procrastination

  • Over-checking or reassurance-seeking

  • Blaming yourself for things going wrong

  • Thinking the worst

    CBT teaches that certain habits might give short-term relief e.g. avoiding a situation, but they often make things harder over time. CBT helps you respond differently, so you can feel better in the long term.

What can CBT help with?

CBT is recommended by the NHS and NICE guidelines for a wide range of issues, including:

  • Anxiety

  • Panic attacks

  • Depression or low mood

  • Stress

  • PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder)

  • OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

  • Phobias and fears

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Trauma Focussed
CBT (TF-CBT)
for PTSD

What is Trauma-Focussed CBT?

Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (TF-CBT) is a structured, evidence-based approach that helps people recover from the effects of trauma and PTSD. It’s designed to support you in making sense of what you’ve been through, while also helping you feel safer, more in control, and better able to move forward.

A key part of TF-CBT is learning grounding and coping strategies that can help you manage overwhelming emotions, flashbacks, or anxiety. These tools are practical and empowering — they help you stay present and build a stronger sense of emotional safety in your day-to-day life.

When you're ready, we may begin to gently revisit and reprocess trauma memories in a way that reduces their emotional intensity and the power they hold. This part of the work is always done at your pace, with care and support, so that it feels manageable rather than re-traumatising.

Throughout therapy, we also focus on helping you reclaim the parts of life that may have been put on hold because of trauma — reconnecting with your values, rebuilding trust in yourself and others, and moving toward a life that feels more grounded, meaningful, and free.

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Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing
(EMDR)

EMDR for Trauma, PTSD and distressing experiences

What is EMDR?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a specialist therapy designed to help process difficult or traumatic experiences that feel "stuck" in the mind or body.

When we go through something traumatic, the brain doesn’t always process it properly. We can find ourselves acting or feeling like we did back at the time of the traumatic experience.

EMDR works by helping the brain reprocess those experiences so they feel less intense and don’t keep affecting your present-day life.

What happens in EMDR?

EMDR is a structured therapy, and we won't start by asking you to go straight into your most difficult memories.

We'll first spend time getting to know what you're struggling with and making sure you have ways of managing difficult emotions and feeling grounded. This can include resourcing, where we develop practical ways to help you feel calmer, safer and more in control when difficult emotions arise. We'll make sure you feel comfortable using these strategies before moving on to processing more difficult experiences.

When you're ready, we'll identify experiences that may be contributing to how you feel now and agree on what we'd like to work on.

During EMDR, I'll ask you to bring a particular memory, thought, feeling or body sensation to mind. While you hold this in your awareness, I'll guide you through a series of gentle side-to-side eye movements, or another form of bilateral stimulation such as tapping or sounds.

You don't need to tell me every detail of what happened. Instead, I'll help you notice what comes up as we work through the memory. This might include images, thoughts, emotions or physical sensations.

This process, which is thought to mimic what happens in ‘REM sleep’, helps the brain "unblock" and process the trauma, reducing emotional intensity and helping you make sense of it in a new way.

What can EMDR help with?

EMDR is recommended for:

  • Trauma and PTSD

  • Distressing past experiences

  • Flashbacks, nightmares, and hypervigilance

  • Negative beliefs linked to past events

  • Ongoing patterns like people-pleasing, avoidance, or emotional shutdown

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