Trauma and EMDR

Trauma therapy and EMDR for Paris

EMDR is the most strongly evidence-based treatment for psychological trauma, recommended by the World Health Organization and by the Haute Autorité de Santé as a first-line treatment for post-traumatic stress. Dr Philippe Jacquet has practised it for more than twenty years, and is a French native speaker working from London. Sessions for Paris take place online by encrypted video, in English or in French.

What EMDR does

An event experienced as an overwhelming threat can defeat the brain’s ordinary capacity to process it. The memory is stored unintegrated, still carrying its emotional charge, its physical sensation and the conclusions about oneself formed at the time, and it reactivates at cues that appear insignificant. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to help that memory be reprocessed and filed. The event is still remembered; it stops behaving as though it were still occurring.

Working across two languages

Trauma is often encoded in the language in which it happened. An adult who now lives and works in English may hold a childhood in French, or the reverse, and being able to move between the two during the work is not a convenience but a clinical advantage. That is available here without an interpreter and without translating oneself.

For English speakers in Paris, there is also the practical difficulty of finding depth trauma work in a first language. Much of what is available is either in French or is brief and protocol-driven. This practice offers neither constraint.

Where EMDR fits

EMDR is one instrument, not the whole of trauma treatment, and it is not always the right opening move. Where trauma underlies an addiction or an eating disorder, the order of the work matters and is decided at the first consultation. More on the approach is on the EMDR therapy page.

Related services in Paris

• Addiction Counselling in Paris
• Eating Disorder Treatment in Paris
• English-Speaking Psychotherapy in Paris
• Stress Counselling in Paris
• Depression Treatment in Paris

See all services for Paris.

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 Doctorate of Professional Practice 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.