As a therapist working in the NHS, for Relate and in private practice I noticed that there was something I just couldn't help my clients with. I could support people to change their relationships or their work and often that helps people in the here and now. Often they would make the changes and then say, "Armele, I've made these changes I want, but I still feel scared and unsettled. I don't feel myself."
I know what that feels like, having been through a difficult experience when my daughter was born there was a long period where I felt angry, scared and on edge. I once literally jumped when my husband tried to hug me without warning. Images would come come into my mind and I couldn't sleep in the same way as before. I had locked away the memories of the birth in the time afterwards so I could focus on caring for a new baby, but it was making me ill.
I can now connect with and speak about the experience I had without the emotions and memories hijacking me or feeling the need to numb it.
Once I learned about how helpful EMDR could be I'd been feeling increasingly frustrated with having to refer some clients to other therapists to have EMDR therapy and so I decided to train in this technique, and it's been so rewarding to work with people in this way.
It feels like I've added the missing piece of the jigsaw, and I'm so grateful to the brilliant EMDR Masterclass and Mark Brayne at EMDR Focus for supporting me in my training.
