Compassionate EMDR Support in Weybridge is designed for people who feel they “should be coping” but secretly feel exhausted, scared or ashamed of how much they are still affected. You might tell yourself that others had it worse, or that it’s too late to talk about what happened. You may be highly functioning on the outside and yet live with panic, numbness, overthinking, nightmares or a constant sense of being on guard. In my Weybridge practice I offer somatic, compassion-focused EMDR so that processing trauma does not mean pushing yourself harder, but learning to treat your nervous system with the care it has always needed.
We begin by slowing down and listening to your body without judgement. Before we go near trauma memories, we spend time building a sense of safety: feeling the support of the chair, noticing where your feet touch the floor, tracking the rhythm of your breath. You might experiment with letting your shoulders drop a fraction, softening your gaze, or letting your exhale last just a little longer than your inhale. These are small things, but for a body that has learned to brace, even tiny cues of safety matter.
Compassion is woven in from the first session. Many people arrive with an inner critic that comments on everything: “Why are you still upset? Why can’t you just get over it? Other people manage.” In Compassionate EMDR Support Weybridge, these voices are not treated as enemies to attack, but as old survival strategies that once tried to keep you safe. Together we get curious about them. As we do this, we begin to make room for another voice—one that can say, “Of course you feel this way; it makes sense,” and, “You went through something too big to carry alone.”
From this kinder base, we start to map how your nervous system reacts to stress and threat. Somatic work means noticing the details: the tightening in your neck when someone raises their voice, the way you stop breathing when you have to check your bank account, the urge to bolt from a crowded space, or the sense of going blank in a difficult conversation. Instead of blaming yourself for these reactions, we treat them as information. They show us where your system still expects danger, and they guide us in choosing what to work with first.
When you have some reliable grounding tools, we begin EMDR in a way that honours your pace. Bilateral stimulation—gentle eye movements, alternating taps or sounds—is introduced in short, manageable sets. After each set we pause and check in with your body and emotions: What is happening right now? Do we need to come back to safety, or is there enough capacity to continue? You are encouraged to say “stop” or “that’s enough for today” and to ask for adjustments. In compassionate EMDR, your limits are not obstacles; they are vital information that helps us keep the work safe.
As memories and themes are processed, we keep a close eye on shame. Traumatic experiences, especially those involving neglect, abuse or complicated relationships, often leave people feeling that they were the problem. During EMDR this shame can surface strongly. Rather than rushing past it, we notice how it shows up in your body—a heavy chest, slumped posture, avoiding eye contact—and we bring warmth to those places. You are invited to experiment with receiving even a tiny bit of kindness towards the parts of you that have felt most unacceptable.
Between sessions we create experiments that gently bring this work into daily life. For some people that means practicing a self-soothing gesture after a stressful meeting, or taking a short, conscious pause before reacting to a triggering message. For others it might be trying out a different tone in self-talk, using phrases like, “I’m doing the best I can with what I’ve lived through,” or, “No wonder this feels hard,” instead of the old automatic criticism. Over time, these small compassionate interventions shift how your nervous system expects to be treated—by others and by you.
Clients often describe changes that are subtle at first and then increasingly noticeable. Anxiety spikes may still happen, but they pass more quickly. Nightmares might lose some of their intensity or begin to change in content. Relationships can feel less like a minefield and more like a place where you are allowed to have needs. Many people in Compassionate EMDR Support Weybridge say they move from feeling “broken” or “too much” towards seeing themselves as someone who survived very difficult things and is slowly learning to live differently.
The practical side matters too. Sessions can take place in person in Weybridge, online, or as a mixture of both. We can work weekly or less frequently, depending on your energy, health, work and caring responsibilities. The structure is something we decide together and review as we go, so that therapy supports your life rather than adding another layer of pressure to it.
Throughout our work I hold the view that there is nothing wrong with you for responding the way you do; there is something right about a nervous system trying to protect you in the only ways it learned.
Compassionate EMDR does not erase what happened, but it can help your body and brain update old patterns so that you are no longer living as if the worst moments are still happening now. Instead, you gain more space to rest, to choose, and to be in connection with others in ways that feel safer and more genuine.
If you are wondering whether Compassionate EMDR Support in Weybridge might help with trauma, anxiety, shame, panic or long-standing stress patterns, you are welcome to reach out with your questions. You do not need to know exactly what you want from therapy, or have a polished story ready. We can start with whatever feels most pressing or confusing right now.
To ask anything or to arrange an initial session, please use the contact page: https://www.cherie-james.com/contact. You can outline what brings you here, what feels most important to change, and what kind of pace would feel kind enough for your system. From there, we can decide together whether this form of somatic, compassion-centred EMDR support is a good fit for you.
FAQ
Q1. How does somatic EMDR support compassionate emdr support effectively?
By stabilising first with grounding and regulation, then processing stuck moments in short bilateral sets with clear consent.
Q2. Will I learn skills that work under pressure?
Yes—portable anchors, doorway pauses, boundary lines and evening wind‑downs you can actually keep.
Q3. Can I mix online and in‑person sessions?
Yes—Weybridge appointments and secure online options can be blended to fit your week.