Shirley Heckles CBT Logo
BABCP accredited, EMDR accredited practitioner & MBACP
07711 052 902 info@cbtconnect.co.uk
Shirley Heckles CBT
I am an accredited EMDR practitioner, registered with the EMDR Association. To maintain my accreditation, I receive monthly supervision from an EMDR consultant.
EMDR is now recognised by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) as a treatment for PTSD. But research has established over the past 20 years that EMDR can be used to treat a range of mental health difficulties. These include anxiety, depression, addictions, phobias (e.g. flying, spiders…), behavioural difficulties, relationship issues, and more serious mental illnesses such as psychosis and personality disorders.
EMDR helps people recover from past experiences that are affecting their mental health and wellbeing.
The mind can often heal itself naturally, in the same way that the body does. Much of this natural coping mechanism occurs during sleep, particularly during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.
Francine Shapiro developed EMDR in 1987, utilising this natural process in order to successfully treat Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Since then, further clinical research has produced evidence showing that EMDR can be successfully used to treat a wide range of mental health problems.
EMDR sessions can take place either online or face to face.
After a thorough assessment, you will be asked specific questions about a particular disturbing memory. Eye movements, similar to those during REM sleep, will be recreated simply by asking you to watch a series of dots moving backwards and forwards across your visual field.
Sometimes, clients might use alternate taps on the shoulders and legs. Alternatively, noises in headphones can also be used.
The movements will last for a short time, around 30 seconds, and then stop. You will then be asked to briefly report back on the experiences you have had during each of these movement sets.
There is less talking between client and therapist during EMDR, but like other therapies it’s really important you feel comfortable and safe with your therapist.
The reprocessing may happen over several weeks. When this is over, client and therapist will work towards “installing” a more adaptive thought.
Most of the time your body routinely manages new information and experiences without you being aware of it. However, when something out of the ordinary occurs and you are traumatised by an overwhelming event (e.g. a car accident) or by being repeatedly subjected to distress (e.g. childhood neglect), or any form of recurring anxiety (bullying, negative thoughts about the self, panic…), your natural coping mechanism can become overloaded.
This overloading can result in disturbing experiences and remain frozen in your brain. These experiences are said to be "unprocessed". Such unprocessed memories and feelings are stored in the limbic system of your brain in a "raw" and emotional form, rather than in a verbal “story” mode.
Often the memory itself is long forgotten, but the painful feelings such as anxiety, panic, anger or despair are continually triggered in the present by our senses. This is a very primitive mechanism which is fast to trigger, pulling you back into the original trauma. Your ability to live in the present and learn from new experiences can then become inhibited.
EMDR helps create the connections between your brain’s memory networks, enabling your brain to process the traumatic memory in a very natural way.
Acknowledgement to EMDR Association & BACP
I’d not been able to fly for around 8 years following a panic attack that over years lead me to becoming unable to even leave my house without sever crippling anxiety. After a period of work with Shirley, we moved to EMDR to combat the final hurdle of flying. This therapy reframed the past experiences and perception of flying in my mind. The negative associations of flying were not there as they once were. 1 year on, I have been able to take my wife and 4 year old son on 2 holidays abroad. Something unimaginable to me some years ago. I can not recommend Shirley and EMDR enough. AR - Oxford
EMDR has given me my life back and more! The depth of the work has been extraordinary and that is so much due to Shirley’s kind, welcoming and gentle nature. I do not trust easily and I have felt very safe working with her through some really tough stuff. Shirley is brilliant at what she does and I am forever thankful for the space she has given me to heal and grow. NW - Norfolk
On my first session of EMDR therapy I was really nervous, thinking I might get it wrong or it would be too painful just reliving all the troubled stuff that had happened in my life. In fact, it really wasn’t as awful as I was thinking it would be. I felt in charge and at the end of my treatment, I feel great. For the first time in my life I feel peaceful. JS - Birmingham
I haven’t had a foreign holiday for 15 years, the thought of the airport and then the flying has just been too much for me to cope with. After EMDR with Shirley specifically related to my phobia of flying, I have booked my flight and I am really excited. AG - London