About
Timothy Holton is trained as an integrative therapeutic counsellor and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR) therapist with experience working face-to-face, virtually and via telephone with a variety of different presenting issues.
During the counselling work completed with individuals, he will ask to hear about what life is like for them currently and how things have got to this point.
Timothy uses a holistic and collaborative approach. He provides a safe and confidential space for clients to offload, explore personal history, gain techniques for coping with current circumstances, and work together to help reach agreed therapy goals.
During EMDR therapy, a plan will be made for working together, including what is going on currently for the client, what has happened in the past, and where an individual wants to get to in the future.
When a person is involved in a distressing event, they may feel overwhelmed and, therefore, their brain may be unable to process the information like a normal memory. The distressing memory seems to become frozen on a neurological level. When a person recalls the distressing memory, the person can re-experience what they saw, heard, smelt, tasted, thought or felt, and this can be quite intense. Sometimes, the memories are so distressing that the person tries to avoid thinking about the distressing event to avoid experiencing the distressing feelings.
Some find that the distressing memories come to mind when something reminds them of the distressing event, or sometimes the memories just seem to just pop into their mind without warning.
The alternating left-right stimulation of the brain with eye movements, sounds or taps during EMDR, seems to stimulate the frozen or blocked information processing system. In the process, the memories seem to lose their intensity, so they become less distressing and seem more like ‘ordinary’ memories.