EMDR for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

Living with OCD can feel like being trapped in an exhausting cycle where your mind presents frightening thoughts and your only relief comes from performing rituals or compulsions even when part of you knows it doesn’t quite make sense. EMDR offers a compassionate way to help break this cycle by working with the experiences that first taught your brain to respond this way.

EMDR focuses on understanding how your intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours are being reinforced by past distressing experiences that haven’t been fully processed. Our goal together is to reprocess those experiences so they no longer trigger that overwhelming anxiety or that urgent need to neutralise it through rituals. EMDR helps your brain separate what’s happening now from the original emotional charge that made certain things feel so dangerous in the first place.

During our sessions, we’ll gently identify the earliest memories connected to themes that often underlie obsessive patterns, perhaps times when you felt out of control, feared harm coming to yourself or others, or experienced intense guilt. As you revisit these memories whilst engaging in bilateral stimulation, something shifts: the emotional intensity begins to decrease. You start to view these old experiences as events that happened in the past, rather than ongoing threats in the present and it makes obsessive thoughts less compelling and less believable.

We’ll often combine EMDR with gentle cognitive work during the reprocessing phase. As your distress drops, we can help install more adaptive beliefs like “I can tolerate uncertainty” or “I am safe even when I don’t check.” These new associations reduce the need for those repetitive behaviours and allow you to respond to anxiety triggers with more flexibility and choice.

Sometimes we’ll also work directly with the physical sensations that accompany your compulsions; perhaps that tension in your chest or that restless, uncomfortable feeling that builds before you perform a ritual. By reprocessing these bodily signals, you can gain a new awareness: the sensations themselves are actually tolerable, even when they’re uncomfortable, your nervous system gradually learns that it doesn’t need the compulsion to find relief and that the discomfort will pass on its own.

Over time, EMDR helps break that exhausting cycle of obsession, compulsion, and temporary relief. Many people experience more mental space, less urgency to act on intrusive thoughts, and improved ability to regulate their emotions. The therapy doesn’t promise to erase intrusive thoughts entirely, they may still pop up from time to time, but it removes their power to dominate your attention and dictate your behaviour.

Key Points:

• EMDR addresses the emotional roots that are sustaining your obsessive patterns
• It reduces the connection between current triggers and old fears from your past
• Early memories of danger or guilt are gently reprocessed until they feel emotionally neutral
• Bilateral stimulation helps your brain separate past events from present reactions
• More adaptive beliefs like “I can tolerate uncertainty” are reinforced naturally
• Physical sensations tied to compulsions are desensitised during sessions
• You learn that you can experience tension or discomfort without having to act on it
• The therapy reduces the perceived threat behind intrusive thoughts
• Your emotional regulation improves, lowering anxiety-driven behaviours
• Long-term benefits often include fewer compulsions and greater mental calm

OCD can be incredibly isolating and exhausting, but you don’t have to stay stuck in this cycle. This work offers a path towards greater freedom, flexibility, and peace of mind.