'A' had enjoyed drama school and taken on challenging roles with enthusiasm and received great feedback. But whenever they got called for an audition, something would unsettle them and they'd arrive flustered and fumble over lines. We worked on the underlying issues to enable them to step up with confidence. Their fears that they'd never make it and that they should just give it up faded, and they started writing and setting up projects.

'J' had her first baby after an easy pregnancy. The labour was difficult and she found the early months extremely challenging. She struggled through but her relationship with her partner was suffering. She felt trapped. She couldn't imagine returning to work, but neither did she want to stay home. The thought of another child was overwhelming, but she wanted her child to have a sibling. With EMDR she felt something shift and became happier and more confident. Her relationship improved and the couple began trying for a second baby.

'N' had a fear of flying. They had previous taken a fear of flying course with a well-known airline, which helped them board a plane but only when absolutely essential. Lockdown had provided the perfect excuse not to travel, but they felt an increasing pressure to visit family once restrictions had ended. It only took a few sessions of EMDR and they were booking weekend city breaks and long haul holidays

"Mr W" was feeling overworked, excluded and undermined at the office. However long he put into projects was never enough, and others took the credit for his successful projects. He tried talking therapy but felt it wasn't really helping and decided to play squash instead, but had to keep cancelling and it soon dropped off his agenda entirely. With encouragement from a friend, he tried EMDR. He was able to look at some experiences that seemed to him unrelated to the work situation. With fresh perspective he saw how they'd been holding him back. Shortly after our work he switched departments and got a promotion.

There are many success stories I could tell, but here are a few case studies to give a flavour of what EMDR can help with.

Names and identifiers have been changed