EMDR for Children, Teenagers and Adults

While EMDR sounds highly technical, for children and adolescents, it is a creative and gentle way to help the brain ‘digest’ difficult or scary memories or blocks to overcoming fears, phobias, OCD and other difficulties that EMDR is now known to help with .

Think of the brain like a physical wound- usually, it heals on its own but sometimes a splinter (a traumatic event) gets stuck and the wound stays sore. EMDR helps the brain remove that splinter so natural healing can happen.

We adapt the standard EMDR process to match your child’s age, personality, and hobbies and use creative means to help children access it. We may use a story-based narrative approach or use drawings instead of words. We also adapt the stage of the therapy that you may be more familiar with- the bilateral stimulation or eye movements. For example, we may use buzzers with child-friendly covers or tap with puppets. As the processing happens the brain starts to make new connections. The ‘scary’ memory begins to lose its emotional charge and moves from being a ‘live’ threat to just a ‘story from the past’ that doesn’t hurt anymore.

EMDR focuses on helping the brain to process experiences and to make new, healthier connections. It involves much less talking than other talking therapies such as CBT or behaviour therapy. You do not have to describe every detail of a bad memory for it to be healed as the work happens internally. By using rhythmic left-right stimulation, such as eye movements, hand taps, or sounds, the therapy mimics the natural processing that happens during REM sleep, allowing the mind to digest traumatic experiences.

Our EMDR therapists are qualified Clinical Psychologists, who have spent their careers working with children, young people and young adults. EMDR has primarily been used to treat trauma. For young people, that may be a single event incident such as a car accident or a sexual assault but for many it is an episode or string of traumas, sometimes smaller and less noticeable to the grown ups around them such as subtle but chronic bullying, separation and divorce, a terrible time with exams or humiliation on a sports pitch. We also use EMDR to help young people with phobias, OCD and other emotional health issues that it has been shown via research to help with. Parents often ask us about EMDR because of how accessible it is to children and young people and because they have heard about the changes it can achieve.

The number of sessions that your child may need depends on their age and developmental stage, history and the nature of the traumatic event. Our EMDR trained Clinical Psychologists will assess and then give some guidance on approximately how many sessions many be needed. Some children with a single event trauma make progress in 0-6 sessions but children with a more complex trauma or complex needs benefit from longer-term work. Progress is reviewed regularly so the pace of therapy remains supportive and responsive to your child’s development.

Yes, EMDR can be adapted and is suitable for neurodivergent children, adolescents and young adults; including those with Autism and ADHD. It does not rely heavily on complex verbal communication or reading social cues so many neurodivergent young people find it much more accessible than CBT and other talking therapies. We can easily adapt the ‘bilateral stimulation’ (traditionally eye movements) to accommodate sensory preferences. We use scale of emotion cards with emojis or colours to help children to show us how they feel, if they cannot easily put it into words. We also have two EMDR Clinical Psychologists who are trained in EMDR sandtray therapy, using miniature worlds to communicate. EMDR is also highly structured, which is often welcomed by our neurodivergent clients.

You will notice your child becoming more ‘regulated’, meaning their emotional outbursts or meltdowns will decrease in intensity and can bounce back from stress more quickly. Common signs of progress include improved sleep patterns, a return to previous hobbies and a noticeable reduction in the ‘physical’ symptoms of anxiety, like stomach aches or constant restlessness.

You may also see a shift in how they talk about the past; the ‘stuck’ memory becomes just a normal story and they no longer feel the need to avoid certain places or topics that used to trigger them. As the heavy emotional weight lifts, your child will likely show more curiosity, increased confidence in social situations and a greater ability to focus on the present moment rather than being distracted by past worries.