EMDR therapist in Essex
Safely process trauma with EMDR therapy
Supporting high-performing professionals across Essex and London. Online sessions and home visits available.
What is EMDR therapy?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. A ridiculous mouthful, I know.
It’s a proven therapy method that’s often used for trauma and PTSD, and the idea behind it is this: some experiences don’t get processed properly, so they keep setting off reactions long after the danger has passed. EMDR uses a structured process to help the brain revisit that experience and store it differently, with less distress attached to it.
What are the benefits of EMDR therapy?
One of the reasons I use EMDR is that it’s recognised as an effective treatment for trauma, and the evidence backs this up. I find it especially helpful for situations where reminders of what happened still hit harder than you’d like.
EMDR therapy can help you:
- Process trauma, PTSD, and difficult memories
- Feel less thrown by reminders of what happened
- Reduce intrusive images, nightmares, or flashbacks
- Feel less trapped by shame, guilt, or fear
- Stop organising life around avoidance
- Feel clearer and more present with people
- Calm physical symptoms like tension, panic, nausea, or a racing heart
How does EMDR therapy work?
In an EMDR session, I’ll ask you to bring up the memory, feeling, or body response we’ve chosen. While you do that, you’ll follow a side-to-side movement with your eyes, listen to sounds that switch between ears, or use gentle left-right tapping on your body.
After each short round, we stop. I ask what came up. Then we keep working until the reaction no longer feels like a threat to your brain, and starts to lose its power over you.
What can EMDR therapy help with?
EMDR has been proven to help with a lot of the issues high achieving professionals face.
Here are just a few:
Trauma
When reminders still hit hard, EMDR can help reduce the distress attached to what happened.
PTSD
PTSD can make old danger feel current. EMDR works with the memories and body responses still setting off alarm.
Anxiety
EMDR can help when panic, fear, or dread seems connected to something you went through.
Depression
Depression tied to trauma, shame, grief or rejection can be harder to shift through talking alone. EMDR gives another route in.
OCD
EMDR isn’t the main treatment for OCD, but may help when trauma or shame is feeding the fear.
Self-Criticism
When self-criticism feels automatic and brutal, EMDR can loosen the older belief sitting underneath it.
Trauma
When reminders still hit hard, EMDR can help reduce the distress attached to what happened.
PTSD
PTSD can make old danger feel current. EMDR works with the memories and body responses still setting off alarm.
Anxiety
EMDR can help when panic, fear, or dread seems connected to something you went through.
Depression
Depression tied to trauma, shame, grief or rejection can be harder to shift through talking alone. EMDR gives another route in.
OCD
EMDR isn’t the main treatment for OCD, but may help when trauma or shame is feeding the fear.
Self-Criticism
When self-criticism feels automatic and brutal, EMDR can loosen the older belief sitting underneath it.
Work with trained EMDR therapist, Ryan Hegarty
I’m a trained EMDR practitioner, BABCP-accredited psychotherapist, and registered mental health nurse with over a decade of experience.
Before private practice, I worked across Broadmoor, high-secure services, primary care, and higher education. That background means I’m not easily rattled by complex histories, strong reactions, or intense levels of trauma.
I offer EMDR therapy online or through home visits throughout London and Essex.
Their experience
Hear from some of my clients.
Can’t recommend highly enough!!!
Ryan was an exceptional trauma-informed CBT therapist and I can’t recommend him highly enough. From the very first session, he immediately made me feel relaxed, safe, and comfortable enough to open up about what was going on. He explained things in a way that was easy to understand and always made the techniques feel relevant and personal to my situation.
My time working with Ryan was very helpful and productive. I’ve had several counsellors over the years, and elements of Ryan’s approach were quite different and very suited to me. His manner is relaxed and empathetic. Whilst the time was taken to aid my understanding of myself, he also provided real tools and tactics that enabled me to put the changes I wanted to make into practice. This has often been the gap in the past that prevented me from making meaningful change. I’m doing well now, but wouldn’t hesitate to go back to Ryan, for a top up, or to work through another issue on the future. Thank you, Ryan.
Life Changing.
Ryan has been incredible throughout. His pragmatic approach and tools have helped me overcome a number of challenges which have built up over time.
His clear communication style and clarity ensured I was able to understand everything in the first instance and the awareness I developed with his help has significantly improved my view on many things and helped me be more accepting in certain situations which would have previously snow balled and got out of control.
Without question or doubt, I’d highly recommend Ryan. Thank you Ryan.
I couldn’t recommend Ryan more.
Ryan is a highly trained therapist, who you feel at ease with after just your first meeting. He speaks to you like you’re a real person and creates an environment that you feel that you can open up in. Ryan has real life applicable techniques which are easy to integrate into your day to day life. He genuinely has changed my life and way of thinking.
I have tried NHS and a few other therapy services. Slan Therapy was the one that stuck. Ryan is patient and lets you go at your own pace whilst also making sure you are progressing. He made me feel so at ease and I looked forward to the sessions instead of dreading them (like all the ones before). My life is now brighter since working with him. 100% recommend, his Irish self won’t let you down!
Ryan is a phenomenal practitioner of pyschotherapy and CBT. I started working with him on a personal recommendation and within a few sessions he had helped me not only understand (for the first time) what was going on for me, but also started equipping me with practical work that made a real difference.
Ryan is a highly trained therapist, who you feel at ease with after just your first meeting. He speaks to you like you’re a real person and creates an environment that you feel that you can open up in. Ryan has real life applicable techniques which are easy to integrate into your day to day life. He genuinely has changed my life and way of thinking.
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What is EMDR therapy like?
EMDR therapy is a lot more structured than a typical talking therapy session. We start with the thing that still has charge. That could be a memory, an image, a body feeling, or the belief that lands with it (something like “I’m not safe,” “it was my fault,” or “I can’t cope.”)
I’ll ask you to bring it to mind, notice what comes up, and where you feel it in your body. Then we use left-right stimulation. That might mean following my hand or a moving dot with your eyes, listening to sounds that switch between ears, or using gentle tapping somewhere on your body from side to side.
After each short round, I’ll ask, “What do you notice now?” You might notice a new memory, a shift in your body, a different emotion, or the original image feeling further away. We keep going from there.
Can you do EMDR therapy online?
Yes. I offer EMDR therapy online and through home visits across London and Essex.
Online EMDR can work well if you’ve got privacy, a decent internet connection and somewhere you won’t be interrupted. We’ll talk through the tech setup before we start, don’t worry.
Home visits can suit people who want more privacy or flexibility that fits around work and family life. We’ll work out the best format on the discovery call. You can book your call here if you’d like to learn more.
How do I know if EMDR is right for me?
You don’t need to know before booking.
That is part of what the discovery call is for. If something from the past still feels active, or your reactions feel bigger than the moment in front of you, EMDR may be worth looking at.
Will I have to talk through every detail of what happened?
Not necessarily. With EMDR therapy, I’ll need enough information to work safely, but you don’t always have to explain every detail out loud.
I’m not trying to drag a full statement out of you. Instead, we’ll work with the memory, feeling, image, or body response attached to what happened.
Will EMDR make me feel worse before I feel better?
EMDR can stir things up, especially when we’re working with trauma. You might feel tired, emotional, or a little bit unsettled after a session. But you can also feel lighter, more at peace, and more energised. It really depends on the individual person, experience, and situation.
But don’t worry, we do plan for that, and will build ways to help you feel more grounded before and after the work, so the sessions feel contained.
Is EMDR only for PTSD?
EMDR is best known for trauma and PTSD, but it can also help with anxiety, panic, shame, low mood, depression, self-criticism, and OCD-related distress when those problems are linked to difficult past experiences. As we work together, I’ll help you to figure out what your system is still reacting to, and whether EMDR is the right way to work with it. If not, I’ll apply other evidence-backed methods, like Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
Can EMDR help with physical symptoms?
Yes, when the physical symptoms are part of a trauma or anxiety response.
That might include a racing heart, tight chest, nausea, shaking, tension, panic, feeling frozen, or constantly bracing for something to happen. EMDR can help your body stop reacting to old threat as if it’s happening now.
Can I get EMDR therapy on the NHS?
EMDR therapy can be available through the NHS, especially for PTSD.
Access depends on your local service, referral route, waiting times and clinical need. Some clients choose private EMDR therapy because they want to start sooner, choose their therapist, or fit sessions around a demanding diary.
What does private EMDR therapy cost?
Online EMDR therapy costs £99 per session.
Home visits are priced depending on your location, because travel time and distance vary. I’ll explain the cost clearly before anything is booked. Some EMDR work may call for a longer session, especially if we’re doing a focused piece of trauma work. We’d agree that first.
Book the call. We’ll take it from there.
A first conversation about what’s happening, what you need help with, and whether my approach fits.