Eye Movement Desenstisation and Reprocessing

10th to 11th Jan 2022

Philosophy & Ethics SIG Webinar - 10th January 2022 at 19:45 GMT.

Dr David Pike will be discussing his approach to persistent pain using Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, see:  https://emdrassociation.org.uk/) is a relatively new way of helping people come to terms with extreme emotional experiences. Often, but not always, these are formed or linked to early childhood development (known technically as Adverse Childhood Experiences or ACEs). They are not consciously remembered, as the feelings threaten to overwhelm the brain, making them too intense to be put into words and shared, but they still affect our current mental state and may be felt as physical pain.

Unfortunately, talking therapies run the risk of making things worse by getting patients to try and express or accept these extreme feelings. As a new approach, I find EMDR, not technically a talking therapy, to be the psychological equivalent to X-Rays or MRI scans: it allows us direct access to the hidden depths of the mind (under controlled conditions). Simultaneously, this allows the mind to heal itself in a way analogous to how the body heals itself after damage.

This webinar is to introduce how EMDR can help make the experience of persistent pain understandable to both the patient and the therapist and ameliorate the impact of pain on life and mental health.

Dr David Pike
David Pike qualified as a Clinical Psychologist in 1972 from Birmingham University, UK. He has had a varied career both within Clinical Psychology (Adult Mental Health) and elsewhere. 

In 1989 he was involved in a project to bring psychological expertise to all the Outpatients departments of Heartlands Hospital, a major Regional Hospital in Birmingham. This project blossomed under Dr Ralph Hibbert in the Outpatient Pain Clinic. When Ralph moved to head-up Anaesthetics at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, David was contracted to provide the Psychological input to the Pain Clinic at Selly Oak. This Pain Clinic team developed multidisciplinary working. David devised and ran Pain Management Programmes as well as having his own therapy case load. This was at a time when Psychological input into the British Pain Society was growing, particularly with the powerful impact of Dr Chris Main (to mention only one of many), giving birth to the BioPsychoSocial model. EMDR only came on the scene many years later.

David now leads the EMDR NICE monitoring group on behalf of the EMDR UK Association. The group was too late to influence the recent NICE guidelines on Persistent Pain, but there is now solid evidence for the efficacy of EMDR with pain to be included in the next guidance. David continues to work independently in a semi-retired way, particularly supervising other Psychological Therapists in the areas of PTSD and Chronic Pain.

If you are interested in attending, please contact Maureen Tilford, P&E SIG Secretary at: [email protected]