My perspective on stuckness and change
Some people who come to me have had considerable experience of therapy and a sophisticated understanding of their difficulties. Others are coming to therapy for the first time. What they may have in common is a recognition that insight alone does not always translate into change.
You may understand where a pattern comes from, recognise the beliefs that underpin it and even know what you would like to do differently, yet continue to experience the same emotional responses. There can be a persistent gap between what you understand intellectually and what you continue to feel, particularly when difficulties have become deeply embedded through past experiences or relationships.
This is where EMDR fundamentally changed my practice. I became increasingly interested in what happens when we work not only with conscious understanding, but with the underlying experiences and patterns that continue to shape present-day responses. EMDR can facilitate the adaptive processing of experiences that remain insufficiently integrated, allowing something that has felt emotionally unresolved to become less activated in the present.
I continue to integrate EMDR with CBT, Attachment-informed, Acceptance and Compassion and Focused approaches. This allows us to consider both the patterns maintaining difficulties now and the experiences that may lie beneath them.
For some people, meaningful change comes not from gaining more insight, but from processing what insight alone has not been able to shift.
