When my GP suggested that EMDR might be appropriate for me I was surprised. Though I had some awareness of EMDR, my understanding was limited, believing it to be used only for trauma symptoms that related to extreme events such as car crashes or physical violence. It has been a relief and a revelation to discover how wrong I was and that therapy with Katie (based around Attachment-Informed EMDR) was exactly what I needed. 

Working with Katie over the past three years has helped me profoundly. As a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman I had been bumping through crisis after crisis in my thirties becoming less able to recover despite the help of some excellent therapists. When I first began working with Katie I was in a difficult place that could be described as a breakdown. I had tried very, very, very hard to feel better and trying hard had now become a trigger in and of itself. It was hard to know what to do next.

My doctor and therapist at the time both felt that I needed something different. A therapeutic approach that did not rely so heavily on my own capacity to reflect on myself and life. Help that could be given without the need to further engage my distressed critical, analytical brain and something that could give me relief and assistance in an almost behind-the-scenes way.

Katie’s approach was gentle yet profound. Through the Attachment-Informed EMDR she was able to help me identify and process deeply rooted feelings. She was able to work with my more positive thought patterns, tailoring our sessions to me and guiding me in an imaginative way so that we could access the powerful feelings underneath the difficult things in my life without becoming bogged down, distressed or shut down by the details or events and interactions.

I had become reactive and stressed by the generic approaches of CBT and distressed by the endless attempts to get me to pin down how I was feeling and what I needed via poorly fitting numbered scales and narrow multiple choice questions. I felt less – less human and less understood – every time I encountered a mental health professional who treated me like another faulty piece on a conveyer belt. 

Working with Katie couldn’t have been more different. Everything about her approach has felt specific, nuanced and individualised. Our work together has felt like building a language: my language yes, but also a shared language which she has facilitated me to create and has taken great pains to learn to speak. It is a way of understanding myself and the world that actually fits my brain and has allowed me to process and make progress despite difficulty.

In our sessions, as well as processing hard things Katie has helped me to understand how I might want to feel in future and encouraged me to process this so that it has become a genuine possibility for me to feel and react the way I want to. She has helped me to build a safe, generous and restorative place in my head and, thanks to the way that EMDR works, I actually find myself able to access it and soothe myself in times of need. 

In times of distress that would previously guaranteed a trauma response, I find I now have another route. One that I don’t have to remember to reach for nor force myself towards, because it is just there for me as an option. As if with Katie’s help, I have made new doorways in my brain and found that – without too much struggle – I can open them and discover lighter, gentler, less complicated and less painful places to exist.