Tony Warren - RTS
Registration No: RTS00030

I am a highly qualified and experienced psychotherapist who has also worked as a Business Consultant and Trainer in the UK and overseas, whilst learning and developing new skills.
 

I retired from Unilever in 1995 after a thirty-five year career and began my counselling training the same year in the "Integrative" model. I spent the first three years working on bereavement and loss with the N.H.S. on a voluntary basis, extending to general psychotherapy in the local N.H.S. Community Mental Health Unit one day a week for the last nine years.
 

Each year I have found it necessary to extend my skills and knowledge base to meet the challenges my clients bring. I have undergone specialist training for working with survivors of childhood abuse and more recently qualified as a practitioner of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing). See detailed notes below.

A definition of trauma is "A powerful shock that may have long-lasting effects". (Collins English Dictionary), and whilst increasing attention is focused on severe trauma, and rightly so, we should not forget that relatively minor experiences can have long-lasting effects and can be treated successfully in a few sessions.

I firmly believe in the importance of a trained professional approach to counselling and psychotherapy and abide by the B.A.C.P. (British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy) codes of Ethics and Practice and am subject to their complaints procedure. I am also accredited by the Neurolinguistic Psychotherapy and Counselling Association (NLPtCA).

I believe in ongoing personal and professional development and I undertake regular supervision.

Why do distressing memories become so intrusive, so easily triggered by everyday experiences – a sound, an image, a touch, even a smell? They seem to be locked in the forefront of our subconscious. There are many theories, one being that it is like an early warning, protecting us from a repeat of the original experience, but that it is programmed too finely, taking us back to "X" so easily and often ruining the balance in our lives.

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a complex, highly specialised therapy used to overcome the effect of traumatic or upsetting experiences. It was developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro, after she noticed her own stress reactions diminishing when her eyes swept back and forth as she walked through a park.

EMDR combines several therapeutic methods – psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioural, etc. – with eye movements or other forms of rhythmical stimulation, such as hand taps or sounds. It involves recalling a stressful past event and "reprogramming" the memory in the light of a positive, self-chosen belief.

Theories as to why EMDR works are still evolving. It has been most successful with single-incident trauma, but has expanded to effectively treating the emotional scars left by more common childhood events that keep people stuck in limiting behaviours.