EMDR is a therapy that combines mind and body and your emotions to process any mal-adaptively stored trauma memories. which are getting in the way of you processing information in your usual way and may be the cause of many mental health disorders such as PTSD.

It follows eight distinctive phases:

1. History taking where a full history of your life is taken.
2. Preparation where calm place and resilience building work are carried out.
3. Assessment of both your unhelpful beliefs and preferred outcomes regarding your trauma.
4. Desensitisation using bilateral stimulation in the form of eye movements or tapping
5. Installation and strengthening of the preferred belief.
6. Body Scan to identify any somatic distress.
7. Closure and containment work.
8. Review and maintenance phase.

Poly Vagal Therapy is a therapeutic approach that can help you to better understand and manage your body's response to stress and trauma. "The Body Keeps The Score!"

It focuses on the vagus nerve and the role it plays in regulating emotions and behaviour.

Trauma survivors bodies can get stuck in patterns of fight or flight or freeze and shutdown and this therapy helps you to come back to self regulation or the safe and social zone.

The length of time you need to see a therapist for is completely dependent on your unique situation. You may find that working with a therapist on a specific issue really helps and you feel confident managing your emotions yourself so it may only take a few sessions. Nice Guidelines recommend at least 8-12 weekly sessions for working with trauma.

However, the emotions you are facing right now may have their roots in something deeper, some unresolved issues from your past, which may take longer to explore and to make sense of. No two clients are the same and no two issues are the same so therapy takes as long as it needs to, for you to feel that you are in control of your emotions and so you feel equipped to manage them going forward. We usually work to blocks of six and review at the end of each block.

In each CBT session, we will discuss anything that is troubling you. This could be thoughts that you are struggling to deal with, unwanted feelings you may have, or certain behaviours that you feel you can’t control.

Every session is like a problem-solving session, in which you share your experiences. Using various tools and techniques, you reflect objectively on your thoughts, feelings and behaviours we explore them thoroughly, so you can understand them better. With this new understanding, you can take back control and develop ways to manage them in more helpful ways.

In an EMDR sessions we will follow the eight phase protocol comprising of history taking, client preparation, assessment, processing, installation, body scan, closure and re-evaluation of the treatments effect. This therapy is focussed more on working at an emotional level and where you feel this in your physical body, remember ' The Body Keeps The Score' even if you head says otherwise.

Narrative Exposure Therapy is particularly relevant in helping survivors of multiple traumas or what is sometimes referred Complex Trauma or Complex PTSD.

In this therapy we use a life to explore your traumatic experiences in chronological order. By doing this it's aim is for you to slowly and methodologically repair negative associations and responses.

Unlike TF-CBT it doesn't start with the worst event but the first event. It can help you to remember the finer sensory details and help fill in the gaps you may have in your memory helping you to complete and process your life story as a whole and no longer be defined by your trauma.

When we talk of trauma we are often referring to a single incident such as a car crash, an attack or any other one off traumatic incident.

Complex Trauma refers to a series of traumatic events that take place over a period of time perhaps months or even years. This is particularly difficult for survivors as they may see no end to it or forever be on guard waiting for the next incident to occur.

I am experienced in providing vicarious trauma assessments and psychological wellbeing resilience assessments for Police Scotland, The Scottish Government, Supreme Court and The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service.

I have been the Clinical Lead for The Scottish Government's Inquiry into Childhood Abuse offering consultative support .

I have been Clinical Lead for Police Scotland offering Trauma Triage assessments for Trauma Focussed CBT & EMDR onward referrals.

I have been the out of hours Clinical Lead on call for The Met Police Trauma Support offering initial clinical assessments and ongoing short term counselling.

I have been on-call 24/7 for onsite Clinical Incident Stress Debriefing trauma work for high profile incidents such as sudden deaths by accidents, suicides and Covid 19 related deaths as well as for MET Police Major Incidents.

I have offered bespoke services for organisations who require specialist trauma services and have over ten years experience in providing telephone, and online video counselling as well as ECBT to blue light organisations, as well as the NHS and Central Government.