Trauma waits for safety. That is the single most useful thing to know about it, and it explains why so much of this work begins long after the event that caused it.
People hold together remarkably well while something is still happening. It is afterwards, once the posting is stable and the danger has passed, that sleep goes, or an ordinary thing produces a reaction out of all proportion to it. That is not deterioration. It is what happens when the nervous system finally has the conditions to process what it had to postpone.
EMDR therapy for Abu Dhabi, online
EMDR is the most strongly evidence-based treatment for psychological trauma. It is recommended by the World Health Organization and by the UK’s NICE as a first-line treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, and that standing rests on decades of clinical research rather than on fashion.
Dr Philippe Jacquet has practised EMDR for more than twenty years. Length of practice matters in a field where the protocols have changed considerably, and where the distance between a recently certified practitioner and an experienced one is measured in hundreds of complex cases worked through over time. For people in Abu Dhabi, sessions take place by encrypted video, in strict confidentiality, from any private location, in English or French.
What EMDR actually does
During an event experienced as an intense threat, emotional overload can prevent the brain from processing the experience in the ordinary way. The memory stays unintegrated: charged with emotion, with bodily sensation, and with the beliefs about oneself that were formed in the middle of fear. Memories in that state can reactivate at any moment, set off by cues that seem trivial from outside. A smell, a tone of voice, a situation only vaguely similar.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, which may be guided eye movements, tapping or alternating sounds, to help the brain do what it could not do alone at the time. The memory is reprocessed and integrated. Afterwards it remains accessible, but it loses its capacity to flood the person, and the body stops responding as though the event were happening again.
It is worth being plain about the limits. For a single, bounded event, properly assessed and properly treated, EMDR can be remarkably effective and sometimes quick. Where trauma was prolonged, or began in childhood, there is no one memory to process, the picture is different, and the work is slower. Anyone promising to resolve that quickly is selling something.
Why this comes up in Abu Dhabi
Abu Dhabi concentrates a particular population: the government and sovereign sector, energy, defence and aviation, healthcare and higher education, and a diplomatic community. Compared with Dubai, postings tend to be longer and the professional world is smaller, which changes the clinical picture in two specific ways.
The first is distance at the wrong moment. An accident, a sudden death at home, an evacuation, a violent incident. In an ordinary life what follows is family, familiar surroundings, and other people who were also there. What follows here is a flight, a funeral that may not be reached in time, and a return within the week to an office where nobody knew the person who died. The event gets no processing at all, and years later it is entirely intact.
The second is occupational. Aviation, defence, medicine and emergency work expose people to events that the role treats as ordinary and the nervous system does not. In those professions there is usually a strong reason not to report difficulty, and a reasonable fear about what disclosure might cost. The result is a great deal of untreated trauma carried by extremely competent people.
Confidentiality, which here is the practical obstacle
In a small professional community where residency is tied to employment, the prospect of anything appearing on a local record is often enough to keep a problem untreated for years. That is not irrational caution. It is an accurate reading of the situation.
This practice is in London. Sessions are conducted by encrypted video and have no connection to any clinic, insurer or professional network in the UAE, so there is no local footprint, no waiting room and nothing held locally. For people in senior, licensed or public-facing roles, that separation is not a preference but a clinical precondition: it is what makes it possible to say the thing at all.
Working in English or in French
Dr Jacquet is French, and trained and practises in the United Kingdom. For trauma work the language matters more than people tend to assume, because the material is usually lodged in the language in which it was laid down. Being able to work in either, and to move between them, is a practical clinical advantage rather than a convenience.
Online, and whether it works
EMDR protocols have been adapted to video and the clinical literature documents the results. For the large majority of presentations, outcomes are comparable to in-person work, and comparative studies published since 2020 confirm equivalence for PTSD and single-incident trauma as well as for many cases of complex trauma.
Abu Dhabi runs three hours ahead of the United Kingdom, which makes an early-evening session there an ordinary afternoon in London. Weekly work can therefore hold steady through travel and relocation, which is usually the point at which treatment would otherwise lapse.
Read more on the EMDR therapy and trauma therapy pages, or see EMDR for Dubai.
Related services in Abu Dhabi
- Addiction Counselling in Abu Dhabi
- Counselling in Abu Dhabi
- Eating Disorder Treatment in Abu Dhabi
- Executive Coaching in Abu Dhabi
See all therapy services in Abu Dhabi.
Dr Philippe Jacquet is a UKCP registered psychotherapist, a Jungian analyst and an HCPC registered art psychotherapist, with twenty-five years of clinical practice. His Professional Doctorate in Analytical Psychology at the University of Essex examined male eating disorders from the perspective of analytical psychology. Registration can be checked on either public register.
How the work is delivered from here
All international sessions are by secure video, in English or French. Online therapy is not a reduced version of consulting room work: it is the format that lets weekly work survive living abroad, travelling, or relocating. Sessions run in United Kingdom hours, which suits most regions, and if your time zone makes none of it workable, say so when you enquire rather than assuming it rules you out.
For clinicians and treatment services
Dr Jacquet supervises clinical teams in private residential addiction treatment and in a private psychiatric hospital. For treatment centres, psychiatric units and group practices looking for external clinical supervision, including in places where no supervisor of this seniority is available locally, team supervision is also delivered by video. For individual practitioners, see clinical supervision.
Common questions
Is EMDR available online in Abu Dhabi?
Yes. EMDR works effectively online by secure video, following the same protocol as in-person sessions, with scheduling arranged around the time difference. Abu Dhabi runs three hours ahead of the United Kingdom, which makes early-evening sessions there straightforward from London.
How experienced is Dr Jacquet in EMDR?
He is an EMDR practitioner with more than 20 years of experience, and a UKCP-registered psychotherapist and Jungian analyst with twenty-five years of clinical practice. Both registers are public and can be checked independently.
Will anything appear on a local record?
No. The practice is based in London and sessions are conducted by encrypted video with no connection to any local clinic, insurer or network in the UAE. Nothing is disclosed to an employer, sponsor, family member or any third party without your consent, save for the narrow legal and safeguarding limits every registered practitioner is bound by, which are explained at the outset.
Are sessions available in English and French?
Yes, in both. For trauma this matters more than people expect, because the material tends to be lodged in the language in which it happened.
How many sessions does EMDR take?
For a single, recent event, sometimes remarkably few. Where trauma has been prolonged or began in childhood, the work is slower and wider, and begins with a stabilisation phase before any reprocessing. An honest estimate is given at assessment rather than promised in advance.