Welcome, and thank you for visiting Derwent EMDR Therapy. My name is James Thomas and I am a Psychotherapist providing both short- and long-term therapy to adult individuals.
Welcome
Welcome to my site offering EMDR Therapy and support. I understand that taking the first steps to accessing Psychological Therapy can feel daunting, and my aim is to provide the information you need to help you decide if my approach could be helpful to you.
Life brings many challenges - these can include early childhood traumas, surviving work or life related distress as an adult e.g. divorce, loss or other stress. Often the aftermath of these experiences presents a challenge to our quality of life and connections with both ourselves, our partners, friends and relatives.
I am an EMDR Europe Accredited Clinical Supervisor / Consultant. I specialise in an Attachment Informed orientation to EMDR , which is central to my work. I am also a BABCP accredited Cognitive Behaviour Therapist. My aim is to work in a way that suits your needs. I work with adults (17 upwards) and currently don’t work with couples.
About Me
I have worked in Mental Health within the UK National Health Service (NHS) for over 30 years. For the last 11 years I’ve worked in a specialist team as an accredited CBT and EMDR Therapist with complex anxiety problems, with Post traumatic stress as a specialism. I have worked with and learned much from people with many diverse backgrounds, including veterans, uniform services personnel, and non-English speakers.
After completing EMDR training in 2013 I became interested in the work of Dr Laurel Parnell, who developed ‘Attachment Focused EMDR’. This lead to attending multiple trainings with Laurel Parnell, which broadened and enhanced my EMDR practice. I went on to working closely with Mark Brayne and the team at EMDR Focus in providing advanced training and supervision to therapists in using Attachment Informed EMDR.
This orientation to EMDR allows us to help when the adults experience has links to earlier childhood distress or trauma with caregivers that have been locked into the nervous system – eg medical trauma, neglect, abuse, early losses, parental drug and alcohol use. In the present day these may be seen in anxiety, anger, depression, obsessive compulsive patterns, bingeing. I have found that in order to effectively help people with adult trauma we frequently need to address and support parts of us that have survived great adversity early on.
For Therapists
I am an EMDR Europe Accredited Supervisor / Consultant . I offer supervision and support to those wishing to pursue proffessional accrditation in both individual and group format . As an experienced EMDR training facilitator , I work closely with training teams for both Attachment and Internal Family Sytems Informed EMDR.
If you are interested in accessing this please contact me to discuss further .
What is EMDR?
Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (or EMDR) is a relatively new form of Psychological Therapy. It was originally developed in the 1980s by Francine Shapiro, to help people with single incident Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Since then, EMDR has significantly evolved, and built a strong evidence base of effectiveness in helping a broad range of common human difficulties, with many different populations.
Based within a strong understanding of how the brain and body store and process distress, EMDR is one of the most successful, effective and intensively-researched ways we know of tackling the aftermath of trauma in its many forms. The theoretical basis for EMDR is ‘Adaptive Information Processing’. In essence this is our natural, physically based mechanism to heal from distress and trauma. This has links to many other guiding theoretical principles in the therapy world, though EMDR differs from many ‘talk’ based therapies as we seek to activate natural processing of memories and the feelings / emotions connected to them during our sessions. This happens by the use of ‘bilateral stimulation’ of the physical senses, and can take place in different modalities, eye movements , using headphones , or in a tactile manner by holding a buzzer in each hand or tapping knees as we work. By working in this way we can connect with these foundational scenes in new ways, often through the eyes of the present day . EMDR allows us to modify and ‘process’ these experiences, to promote compassion and acceptance of what has been and our experience.
An explanation of EMDR can be viewed here:
If you have any questions about EMDR, you can also contact me for more information.
What issues can Attachment Informed EMDR help with?
People come to me for help with a wide range of issues. Here are a few of the more common difficulties that can be supported through CBT and EMDR therapy:
Psychological Trauma
Anxiety
Depression
Problems with confidence or self-esteem
Anger management
Issues relating to sexuality or intimacy
Difficulties in work or in retirement
Problems with family life
Relationship problems
Grief, loss or bereavement
Problems with compulsive patterns
Service related stress - e.g. for Veterans, NHS and uniform services
My location
I am based in Derbyshire, and since the Covid-19 restrictions on proximity contact commenced in early 2020 have been working exclusively online using video conferencing software.
I will likely return at a later point to 'in person' work however at this time this service is not available. Please contact me if you would like to discuss how online therapy works.
Services
Therapy :Attachment Informed EMDR
Internal Family Systems Informed EMDR
Cogntive Behaviour Therapy
Sessions are usually held weekly, and are 60 mins long, however this can be flexible according to your availability .
Supervision: For Therapists wishing to apply for accreditation , in group or individual format.
Contact form
Feel free to contact me (james@derwentemdr.com) if you have any questions about how CBT and EMDR therapy works, or to arrange an initial assessment appointment.
You can also call me on 07966761831 if you would prefer to leave a message or speak to me first. I am happy to discuss any queries or questions you may have before arranging an initial appointment.
All enquires are usually answered within 24 hours, and all contact is strictly confidential and uses secure phone and email services.
©2022 James Thomas
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