When the new country goes quiet
One of the least expected costs of moving abroad is what surfaces in the silence. At home, the busyness, the roles and the people kept the old wounds quiet. In Lisbon, the noise stops, and what was buried has room to speak: the anxiety without a name, the insomnia, the reactions too big for their triggers, the past arriving in the present. This is trauma’s way, and it does not respond to willpower.
Dr Philippe Jacquet has practised EMDR for more than twenty years, alongside the containment of Jungian analysis and art therapy for what cannot yet be spoken. He works with the international community of Lisbon and Portugal by secure video, in English and French, on Lisbon time, with the same careful preparation and pacing as in his Harley Street consulting room. On how this approach thinks about trauma: the hole where the story should be.
A first conversation is confidential and without commitment. Book here.
Common questions
Is EMDR available in English in Lisbon?
Yes: Dr Philippe Jacquet has practised EMDR for more than twenty years and delivers it by secure video to clients in Lisbon and across Portugal, in English and French, with the same protocols used in person and careful preparation before any processing begins.
Does EMDR work online?
Yes, when it is done properly: the bilateral stimulation is adapted to the screen, the preparation and stabilisation phases are respected, and the pace follows you. Online EMDR has been widely practised and studied since 2020, and for many clients the familiarity of their own home helps the work.
Why does old trauma surface after a move abroad?
Because the move removes the structures that kept it quiet: the busyness, the roles, the people. In the silence of a new country, what was buried has room to speak: the anxiety, the insomnia, the reactions that seem too big for their triggers. It is one of the most common and least expected costs of relocation.
What if talking about it has never helped?
That is precisely trauma's signature: the story and the wound are stored separately, which is why retelling changes so little. EMDR works where the wound is stored, not only where the story lives, and it is combined here with the containment of long analytic experience: the work goes at the pace you can bear.