Our Approaches
The approaches we use facilitate healing through an understanding of the impact of trauma on the body as well the mind. Our outcomes data shows that both are equally effective.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is recommended by NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) for the treatment of trauma and PTSD. It involves alternating left-right stimulation of the brain using eye movements, sounds or tapping. This bilateral stimulation helps the brain reprocess traumatic memories in a way that causes them to lose their intensity, so they become less disturbing and more like 'ordinary' memories – part of your story but not the story that defines you.
You can find more information about EMDR on the EMDR Association UK website, including this 10 minute video from the EMDR International Association.
Energy Psychotherapy methods are a gentle way of working with trauma that bring together Western psychotherapy with Eastern mind-body approaches and their understanding of our body’s energy system. These approaches recognise that trauma is encoded in our bodies and can be released by gently stimulating our energy system while focusing on the issue that is troubling us, without having to talk about it or risk reliving it.
One example of an energy psychotherapy method for working with trauma is Emotional Freedom Technique, which uses tapping on meridian points to stimulate your energy system. EFT is ranked by NICE as among the top four most effective and cost-efficient interventions for PTSD and complex trauma.
One of our therapists, Dr Coral Westaway, demonstrates EFT tapping in this short video. You can find more information and some free resources on the Association for Comprehensive Energy Psychology website and also on the UK's Energy Psychotherapy Network website.
The Metta Centre for Trauma Therapy, 43 St Giles, Oxford , OX1 3LW
Charity no. 1182200
© The Metta Centre for Trauma Therapy
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