How EMDR Can Help

If you’re struggling with addiction or unhealthy behaviours, you’re not alone, and there’s real hope.
EMDR is a therapy that works differently from traditional talking therapy, it helps your brain actually
process and heal the experiences that fuels the cycle of craving and compulsion.

Breaking the Connection Between Pain and Escape

At the heart of addiction is often a simple but powerful pattern: difficult feelings lead to reaching for
a substance or behaviour to feel better, EMDR gently helps break this link. Together, we will identify
the key memories and moments connected to your use for the first time, the moments of strongest
urge, or times when things felt out of control. These memories carry emotional weight that keeps
the cycle going.
With EMDR’s bilateral stimulation (gentle eye movements, sounds, or touches), your brain can
process these memories differently. Over time, they lose their emotional charge. This means the
urge to use becomes weaker, not through force or willpower alone, but because your nervous
system actually changes how it responds to these memories.

Addressing What Drives the Behaviour

Often, deeper emotions trigger the need to escape, loneliness, shame, boredom, feeling rejected, or
overwhelming stress. Rather than fighting these feelings with willpower, EMDR takes a different
approach. We go back to the original experiences where these emotions first became too much to
bear, and we help your brain process them. As these core experiences lose their intensity, your
nervous system gradually stops defaulting to substances or compulsive behaviours as your only way
to regulate and feel okay.

Reducing the Physical Urge

EMDR also works directly with cravings themselves. In a safe, controlled way, you might imagine the
substance or behaviour while we use bilateral stimulation. Your therapist guides this carefully until
the physical urge naturally decreases. What makes this powerful is that your brain learns it can
experience a craving without acting on it, without reinforcement. This rewires the reward circuits
that keep the cycle alive.

Healing Shame and Self-Judgment

One of the biggest obstacles to recovery is shame. Moments of relapse, perceived failure, or loss of
control can feel crushing, and that shame often becomes fuel for the next cycle of use. EMDR treats
this shame as something we can specifically target and heal. As we process these painful memories,
the emotional weight naturally lifts. You begin to see yourself with compassion rather than
judgment. New, kinder beliefs emerge naturally: “I can stay present without needing to escape”; “I
deserve to recover” and these become part of how you see yourself.

Preparing for the Future

Finally, EMDR helps you prepare for real life. Together, we’ll gently practice facing situations that
used to trigger use: a familiar place, a stressful day, a difficult moment whilst maintaining emotional
stability. By rehearsing these scenarios with bilateral stimulation, your nervous system learns a new
response: you can stay calm and regulated without reverting to old patterns. This builds genuine
confidence for the future.

What Recovery Can Look Like

Through this process, many people experience:
– Decreased cravings and urges that feel more manageable
– Better ability to sit with difficult feelings without immediately reaching for escape
– Less shame and more self-compassion
– A nervous system that naturally turns to healthy regulation instead of substances or behaviours
– Real confidence that you can handle stress and emotion differently
– A genuine sense of agency and choice in your recovery
EMDR doesn’t promise perfection, but it does offer something real: the chance for your brain and
nervous system to heal at a deeper level, so recovery becomes more natural and sustainable.