EMDR Therapy

EMDR therapy in London

EMDR therapy in London is available at this practice with Philippe Jacquet, an EMDR practitioner with over 20 years of EMDR training and clinical experience. That depth of experience is uncommon. Most practitioners encounter EMDR as one tool among many, acquired in a short training. For Philippe Jacquet, EMDR has been a central part of clinical practice for more than two decades, used with a range of presentations from complex trauma to anxiety, grief and addictive patterns.

What is EMDR?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a structured therapy developed originally for trauma treatment. It works on the understanding that some experiences are not properly processed at the time they occur: they remain stored in a way that continues to affect emotions, behaviour and physical responses, often without the person being aware of why. EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (typically guided eye movements, but also tapping or alternating sounds) to help the brain reprocess these stored experiences. What was frozen becomes capable of movement. The experience is not erased, but it loses its charge: it becomes a memory, rather than something that continues to act on the present.

20 years of EMDR, what that means in practice

Philippe Jacquet began training in EMDR over 20 years ago, at a time when it was still relatively new in clinical practice in the UK. He has worked with it continuously since, accumulating a depth of clinical experience that goes well beyond the standard EMDR practitioner training. He uses the approach not as a standalone protocol but as part of an integrative therapeutic relationship that considers the whole person.

That length of experience matters particularly with complex presentations: people who have experienced repeated or prolonged trauma, people for whom earlier therapeutic attempts have not reached what needed to be reached, and people whose presenting difficulties (addiction, eating disorders, anxiety) are rooted in experiences that were never adequately processed. Over 20 years, Philippe has worked with all of these, and the accumulation of that experience is available in every clinical encounter.

What EMDR treats

EMDR is most widely known for PTSD and acute trauma, but its clinical applications extend considerably further. In this practice it is used for: complex and repeated trauma, including childhood trauma; single-incident trauma such as accidents, medical events or assault; anxiety and phobias with an identifiable origin; grief that has become complicated or stuck; addictive patterns where traumatic experience is part of the underlying structure; and eating disorders, particularly where adverse early experience plays a role. It is particularly valuable when a person understands intellectually why they respond as they do, but that understanding does not change the response, because something is held at a level that language and reasoning cannot reach.

EMDR within a wider therapeutic relationship

EMDR at this practice is never offered as a standalone treatment or a quick fix. It sits within a broader integrative and Jungian therapeutic relationship. One that does not reduce a person to their symptoms or their history, but is interested in the whole of who they are. For some people and some presentations, EMDR becomes the primary vehicle of the work for a period. For others, it is one element among several. In all cases, it is used within a clinical relationship built on trust, pacing, and careful attention to what the person needs.

Sessions are available at Harley Street W1, Central London, and online via secure video link. No GP referral is required.

The evidence base for EMDR

EMDR is one of the most rigorously researched psychological therapies available. NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, which sets clinical standards for the NHS) recommends EMDR as a first-line treatment for PTSD alongside trauma-focused CBT. The World Health Organisation and the American Psychological Association have reached the same conclusion.

A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis published in the British Journal of Psychology (Simpson et al.) analysed 29 randomised controlled trials, the most comprehensive review of EMDR for adult PTSD conducted to date. It confirmed that EMDR was significantly more effective than waitlist or usual care, and equivalent in effectiveness to trauma-focused CBT. A 2024 meta-analysis by Wright et al. found EMDR equally effective as Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy across randomised controlled trials. These are not minor findings: they represent the same conclusion, reached independently, across the largest and most methodologically rigorous bodies of evidence available.

Philippe Jacquet has been practising EMDR for over 20 years. That longevity matters clinically: EMDR is not a protocol that can be learned in a weekend course and applied adequately. The preparation phase, the pacing of bilateral stimulation, the capacity to manage what emerges. These are skills that develop through years of supervised practice with complex presentations.

If you have read that EMDR can be harmful, it is worth understanding where the genuine risks actually lie: see the dangers of EMDR therapy and what the research shows.