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EMDR VS CBT

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The results may be similar – make the trauma lose its intensity and help process and store the memory correctly – but the process of the two therapies is quite different. ‘When we use trauma-focused CBT to treat people with PTSD, we are asking them to relate the trauma as a narrative, where they talk it over with their therapist repeatedly, listen to it back (having recorded themselves) and notice the difference­s between the “here and now” and the “then”,’ explains Dr McNeill. You may be more suited to EMDR than to trauma-focused CBT if...

✢ You find it challengin­g to verbalise emotionall­y painful or traumatic experience­s

✢ You’ve previously tried CBT but your symptoms persisted

✢ You find it difficult to engage in therapy homework

✢ You’d rather not relate the ✢ content of the trauma to the therapist. ‘[Instead] you process the memory while using the bi-lateral stimulatio­n, without verbalisin­g it to the therapist,’ explains Dr McNeill.

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