Trauma and EMDR

Trauma therapy and EMDR for Thailand, online

EMDR is the most strongly evidence-based treatment for psychological trauma, recommended by the World Health Organization and by NICE in the United Kingdom as a first-line treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Dr Philippe Jacquet has practised it for more than twenty years. For people living in Thailand, sessions take place online by encrypted video, in English or French.

What EMDR does

When something is experienced as an overwhelming threat, the brain’s ordinary processing can fail. The memory is stored unintegrated, still carrying its emotion, its bodily sensation and the conclusions about oneself formed in that moment, and it reactivates at cues that look trivial from outside. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to help the brain reprocess and file it. The memory stays; the charge goes, and the body stops behaving as though the event were still under way.

The trauma that came with you

People rarely relocate to Thailand in order to treat something. They relocate, and then find that what they were carrying has arrived intact, minus the structures that used to contain it. A bereavement that was never mourned, a marriage that ended badly, a career that collapsed, a childhood that was managed rather than processed — none of it is resolved by distance. It is deferred, sometimes for years, and it tends to announce itself in a place where there is no GP who knows the history and no one to ask.

There is also trauma acquired locally: accidents, assault, the aftermath of a relationship that turned coercive a long way from anyone who might have intervened.

Working from outside

For this work, a therapist who is not part of the expatriate community is an advantage rather than a compromise. Small communities are not confidential, and the fear of being recognised keeps a great many people out of a consulting room they would otherwise have entered. Working by video with a practice in London removes that entirely.

Where EMDR fits

EMDR is one instrument, not the whole of trauma treatment. Where trauma sits underneath an addiction or an eating disorder, the order matters, and it is decided at the first consultation rather than assumed. More on the approach is on the EMDR therapy page.

Related services for Thailand

• Addiction and Alcohol Therapy for Thailand
• Eating Disorder Treatment for Thailand
• English-Speaking Therapist in Bangkok

See all services for Thailand.

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.