EMDR and Treatment for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

In twenty-five years Dr Robert Lefever has treated over five thousand people suffering from depression and any form of  compulsive behaviour (principally problems with alcohol, drugs and food). His personal and professional understanding of these difficulties give him the ability to provide practical help and constructive care for all who are affected. His use of EMDR is particularly helpful for post-traumatic stress disorder. Please contact him on info@drrobertlefever.co.uk or on 07540 281 820 to discuss help for yourself or for someone close to you.

Post-traumatic stress disorder occurs when a previous traumatic event stays stuck in the mind. Any echo of the old trauma – anything that serves as a reminder of it – brings up the feeling that it is still occurring today.

War veterans jump into the hedge when a car backfires. Rape victims fear that all men are rapists and therefore find it difficult to maintain or make relationships.

PTSD can be totally debilitating. People who were previously out-going and highly productive can withdraw into themselves and become lost. They lose their ability to take life as it comes and make something positive of it. Their relationships become strained. By being preoccupied with the past trauma, they become unable to live comfortably in the present.

The definitive treatment for this condition is EMDR (eye movement desensitization and re-processing). By following a hand or a light-bar from left to right and back again, both sides of the brain are kept active at the same time and therefore ‘the thinking brain’ can talk to ‘the feeling brain’. Any bi-lateral stimulation – say, with touch or sound or vibration or a combination of these – will be equally effective. This treatment can un-block all sorts of emotional trauma and it should therefore be used only by trained medical professionals.

Cognitive behavioral approaches are ineffective. The sufferer knows perfectly well that the traumatic event is over – but it doesn’t feel like it.

Antidepressants and other medications simply complicate the condition, rather than cure it, and they create dependency problems of their own.