When people get in touch, one of the most common questions they ask is this: should I come to you for EMDR or for counselling?
It’s a fair question. The honest answer is that it’s up to you.
I offer both. Which one we use — or whether we use a combination of both — is led by what you want, what feels right, and what emerges as most useful as the work gets underway. There’s no predetermined plan. No fixed programme. Just a genuine conversation about what you’re dealing with and what kind of help feels right for you.
That might sound like a small thing. It isn’t. Most therapists present themselves as the expert who decides what you need. My starting point is different — you know yourself better than I do. My job is to offer the right tools and create the right conditions for you to use them.
This post explains what EMDR and integrative therapy each offer — honestly and clearly — so you can start to get a sense of what might suit you before we even speak.
What integrative therapy offers
Integrative therapy is the foundation of everything I do.
It’s not a single technique. It’s a way of working that draws on several well-evidenced approaches — person-centred, psychodynamic, CBT, and Gestalt — adapting to what each person needs rather than applying a fixed method to everyone.
At the heart of it is a simple belief. You are the expert on your own life. My job is not to analyse you, fix you, or tell you what to do. It’s to create a space where you feel genuinely heard — safe enough to be honest about what’s really going on — and to bring the right thinking to help you understand and shift it.
For some people, integrative therapy is exactly what they need and nothing else. The experience of being truly listened to. Understanding where patterns come from. Knowing yourself better. Relating to yourself and others differently. That work is deep, it’s real, and it stands entirely on its own.
For others, it’s the foundation within which something more specific — like EMDR — can happen safely.
The integrative talking therapy hub gives a full picture of how that approach works and what it helps with.
What EMDR offers
EMDR offers something different — and something specific.
It doesn’t work primarily through conversation. It doesn’t ask you to narrate your experience at length or talk everything to death. It works by targeting stored memories directly — helping the brain process experiences that got stuck and are still driving current difficulties.
When something overwhelming happens — or when something less dramatic but still significant happens repeatedly — the memory can get lodged in a raw, unintegrated form. It keeps intruding. It gets triggered. It shows up in the body as well as the mind. And no amount of understanding why it happened quite shifts how it feels.
EMDR reaches that layer. It works at a neurological level — and the changes it produces tend to last, because they happen at the level of how the memory is stored, not just how you think about it.
A lot of people who come for EMDR have already done talking therapy. They’ve made real progress. But something remains. A memory that’s still raw. A physical response that hasn’t changed. EMDR is often what reaches what talking couldn’t.
The hub post on EMDR therapy explains the full approach — what it is, how it works, and what it helps with.
How you might know what feels right
Most people have a sense — even before they start — of what they’re looking for. That instinct is worth trusting.
You might be drawn to integrative therapy if you want to talk. To be heard. To understand yourself better. To work through something that feels complex and relational rather than rooted in a specific event. If what you’re carrying feels more like a way of being in the world than a particular memory. If you want the process to be exploratory and unhurried.
You might be drawn to EMDR if you have a specific experience — or a cluster of experiences — that you know is driving how you feel and respond. If you’ve tried talking therapy before and something didn’t shift. If the idea of not having to talk through your experience in detail feels like a relief rather than a loss.
You might want both if you’re looking for depth and processing together. A strong relational foundation alongside the targeted processing power of EMDR. A lot of people find this the most effective combination of all.
None of these options is better than the others. They suit different people at different points in their lives. The right one is the one that feels right to you.
What if you’re not sure?
Most people aren’t. And that’s fine.
You don’t need to have it figured out before you get in touch. The initial consultation is exactly the space for that conversation. We talk about what you’re dealing with, what’s brought you to this point, and what you’re hoping for. From that conversation, a clearer direction usually emerges naturally.
There’s no pressure to commit to anything before we’ve had a chance to understand what actually fits. You lead. I follow.
When EMDR and integrative therapy work together
The most powerful work often combines both — and it’s worth being clear about why.
EMDR without a strong relational foundation tends to work technically but feel thin. The processing happens. But without genuine trust, without feeling truly held by the therapeutic relationship, it can be harder to make full meaning of what has shifted.
Integrative therapy without EMDR can produce profound insight and real relational healing — but sometimes leaves a residue. A memory still raw. A physical response unchanged. A layer that talking hasn’t quite reached.
Together, they address the whole person. The relational layer — feeling genuinely seen and heard. The cognitive layer — understanding what happened and what it means. The neurological layer — processing the stored memories that are still driving things. The behavioural layer — building new patterns that reflect the changes that have happened inside.
Research confirms what many therapists see in practice — EMDR is enhanced when combined with other modalities, bringing more depth and integration to the healing process.
That combination is what I offer. Not EMDR bolted onto counselling. Not counselling with occasional EMDR inserted. A genuinely integrated way of working — where both approaches inform each other, and where what we use at any given moment is led by what you actually need.
The two series on this site
If you’ve found this post through the EMDR series, the integrative talking therapy hub gives a full picture of the relational foundation that underpins the work — person-centred therapy, psychodynamic thinking, CBT, and how they fit together.
If you’ve come through the integrative series and you’re curious about EMDR, the EMDR hub post is the best starting point. From there you can read about EMDR for trauma, EMDR for anxiety, EMDR for depression, EMDR for grief, and what online EMDR actually involves.
Both series belong to the same practice. They’re not two separate things. They’re two ways into the same conversation — about what it means to work with a whole person, flexibly and well.
Ready to find out what fits for you?
You don’t need to have it worked out before you get in touch. That’s what the consultation is for.
We have a conversation. You tell me what’s going on. I tell you how I work. Between us, we work out what makes sense. No fixed plan, no pressure, no obligation.
This post on whether EMDR is right for you might help you think things through before we speak. And if you’re new to therapy altogether, this post on what to expect from a first online session takes the practical uncertainty away.
I work online with individuals across the UK and internationally. Sessions are 60 to 90 minutes. I offer a free initial consultation — no commitment.
[Book your free consultation here] — online sessions available worldwide
Gareth Taylor is a Professional Accredited Member of the NCPS (PNCPS Acc.) and a qualified counselling supervisor. He is an EMDR-trained therapist working online with individuals across the UK and internationally, supporting people with trauma, PTSD, anxiety, depression, grief, low self-worth, and a wide range of other presentations.
