The name
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It was developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s and has been studied and refined ever since.
How I can help
Support through the perinatal journey, and the trauma carried into it.
Sessions are unhurried and you set the pace. Whatever brings you here, you won't need the right words ready.
Who I work with
What brings people here
If yours is not named here, it still belongs in the room.
Conception and fertility
Trying to conceive can quietly take over a life: the calendar, the appointments, the hope and the grief that can arrive each month. Support through trying, and through fertility treatment, at whatever point you are in it.
- Trying to conceive, and the wait each month
- Fertility treatment, and the decisions around it
- The strain it can put on a relationship
Pregnancy and antenatal support
Pregnancy is not always the glow people expect. Anxiety, low mood and a sense of being overwhelmed are common, and pregnancy has a way of stirring up what is older. Support through all of it, including a pregnancy that follows a loss.
- Anxiety or fears about pregnancy and birth
- Mood difficulties, including depression
- Emotional overwhelm or uncertainty
- When pregnancy brings up past experiences
- Changes in intimate relationships
- Pregnancy after loss or trauma
Grief and loss
The loss of a pregnancy or a baby, and the losses that are harder to name: the birth you had planned, the version of yourself you expected, relationships that shift. All of it is grief, and all of it belongs here.
- Perinatal and infant loss
- Unmet expectations
- Identity changes
- Loss of relationships
Birth trauma
A birth can be frightening, disempowering, or simply not what you expected, and the memory can stay raw long after everyone else has moved on. Support to make sense of what happened, whatever anyone says about the outcome.
- Processing a difficult or traumatic birth
- A birth that felt disempowering, overwhelming or not what you expected
- Making sense of it, whatever the outcome
Postnatal support and early parenting
The first months can be lonelier and harder than anyone warned you, even when your baby is well. Support with the overwhelm, the changed identity, and what surfaces when your own childhood meets your child.
- The transition into parenthood
- Emotional overwhelm and anxiety
- Identity changes and relationship shifts
- Feelings of disconnection or guilt
- When your own difficult childhood experiences show up
Trauma recovery with EMDR
For trauma from the perinatal period, and for older experiences that still carry weight years later. EMDR is one part of how I work rather than all of it, and it always begins with an assessment.
- Trauma from the perinatal period, such as birth trauma or loss
- Past or historical trauma that still carries weight
- Early life and attachment experiences
EMDR · What it is
How EMDR works
Not talking therapy, and not hypnosis. A structured way of helping the brain finish filing a memory it could not file at the time.
The gentle left to right movement an EMDR session uses.
The idea behind it
Most of what happens to us is filed away without much trouble. When something is overwhelming, the memory can be stored differently: raw, unfinished, still carrying the feelings and body sensations of the moment it happened. Later, a sound, smell, place or date can bring those feelings back, with an intensity that feels very present. These past experiences can continue to shape how we feel, respond and cope in the here and now.
What the movement is for
Rhythmic side to side eye movements called bilateral stimulation are used while you briefly focus on a memory. With guidance and support, this taps into your brain's natural ability to safely reprocess and file that memory. It does not disappear. It stops arriving with the same force.
EMDR · The structure
A phased therapy, not a single technique
EMDR follows an eight phase protocol. Grouped into what they actually feel like from your side of the room, they look like this.
Getting to know you
We start with your history, what you are carrying and what is already holding you steady. Nothing is processed in this part. It exists so that the plan we make is yours.
Preparation
Before any memory work, we build the skills that let you step towards something difficult and back out again safely. For some people this is a session or two. For others it is considerably longer, and that is a legitimate part of the therapy rather than a delay before it.
Processing
When you are ready, we work with a specific memory while you follow a gentle bilateral stimulation, such as side to side eye movement or tapping. You stay awake and aware throughout, we go at your pace, and you can stop at any point.
Settling and checking
Each session closes deliberately, so you leave steady rather than mid-way through something. We check back at the start of the next one, and adjust the plan as the picture changes.
EMDR · Before we start
Whether it's the right fit
EMDR is not the right starting point for everyone, and it is not something to rush into. We begin with an assessment, so that I understand what you are bringing and what support you already have around you.
Sometimes the answer is that we spend a while building steadiness first. Sometimes another approach suits you better, and I will say so. If I am not the right person for what you are carrying, I would rather tell you that early and point you somewhere more useful.
You will not be asked to describe everything that happened in detail. EMDR does not depend on you retelling it.
EMDR has a substantial research base for its efficacy in treating PTSD, and is recommended in various clinical practice guidelines, both nationally and internationally. It is endorsed by the Australian Psychological Society and the World Health Organization. In this practice it is most often used for birth trauma, pregnancy and infant loss, distress around fertility, and older experiences that resurface when you become a parent, in the room at Newhaven and by telehealth.
For further information and resources on EMDR, please visit the website of the EMDR Association of Australia.
You set the pace. Nothing happens in a session before you understand it and you're ready for it.
Sessions & fees
How sessions work, and what they cost
By telehealth, anywhere in Australia
I am available for telehealth, which means you can be seen from wherever you are: at home, during a nap, or from a regional town with no perinatal psychologist for hours in any direction. Medicare rebates apply in the same way as they do in the room, and EMDR works over video too.
In person at Newhaven, Victoria
I see clients face to face one day a week in Newhaven, on Victoria's Bass Coast, which suits Phillip Island, San Remo, Wonthaggi, Inverloch, Cowes and the surrounding towns. Babies are welcome at every appointment, in the room and on screen alike.
The Mental Health Care Plan, explained
You don't need a referral to start, and a Medicare rebate is there if you'd like one. A Mental Health Care Plan is a short plan your GP prepares with you. It gives you a rebate on up to ten sessions with a psychologist each calendar year. To set one up, book a longer appointment with your GP and let them know you'd like to talk about your mental health. Bring the referral to your first session or email it ahead, and I'll take care of the rest.
Session fees
- Individual session50 minutes, private clients with or without a care plan
- $240
- Medicare rebate with a care planUp to ten sessions per calendar year
- $149.05
- Out-of-pocket after the rebate
- $90.95
- Pregnancy support counselling rebateUp to three per pregnancy, if eligible
- $74.40
Sessions run 50 minutes. Rebates are for eligible clients with a current Mental Health Care Plan from their GP. The amounts are set by Medicare and change from time to time, so I'll confirm the current figures with you when you book. Please talk to your GP about your eligibility. Payment is by card on the day. Some private health funds offer a rebate for psychology, which you arrange with your fund directly. I don't see clients through NDIS or WorkCover.