7 minute read
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.
er because EMDR accesses that layer directly. It does not require language, narrative, or conscious understanding to produce change. It works with how the memory is stored neurologically — and as that storage changes, the beliefs and physical responses connected to the memory change with it.
The hub post on EMDR therapy explains in full how that process works.
What integrative therapy brings to EMDR
EMDR and integrative therapy need each other — and the reasons why matter as much for EMDR as they do for integrative work.
EMDR is a protocol. It is structured, specific, and carefully sequenced. Those qualities are strengths. But a protocol applied without genuine relational attunement — without the therapist really seeing the person, responding to their particular needs, adjusting the pace to what is actually happening — produces a narrower, less effective form of EMDR.
The most important predictor of therapeutic outcome, across all approaches, is the quality of the therapeutic relationship. That principle does not disappear because EMDR is being used. It remains central. A person who does not feel safe with their therapist, who does not trust that the space is genuinely held, will not be able to access and process difficult material effectively — regardless of what protocol the therapist is following.
This is where the integrative foundation matters. Person-centred work creates the relational safety that makes EMDR processing possible. Unconditional positive regard, deep empathic listening, and genuine warmth are not soft add-ons to the technical work — they are the conditions that allow the technical work to happen. Read more about person-centred therapy here.
Psychodynamic thinking helps understand what is being processed and why it matters. It gives context to the target memories — understanding how they connect to earlier experiences, how they shaped the person’s sense of self, how the patterns they created are still active in relationships and behaviour today. That understanding deepens the processing and makes it more meaningful. Read more about psychodynamic therapy here.
CBT thinking supports the work between sessions. It helps the person identify and manage the thought patterns that maintain their difficulties, build behavioural changes that reinforce the processing work, and develop practical tools for the moments when difficult feelings arise outside the therapy room. Read more about CBT and talking therapy here.
How EMDR and integrative therapy work together in practice
In practice, EMDR and integrative therapy do not take turns. They are woven together — each informing the other throughout the work.
The early sessions are primarily relational. Trust is established. History is taken. The person’s story is heard, properly and without rush. The integrative framework helps the therapist understand what is most relevant — what early experiences shaped the beliefs and patterns that are causing difficulty now, what the person most needs before any deeper processing begins.
Stabilisation is built carefully. This includes the EMDR preparation work — grounding techniques, safe place development, stabilisation resources — but it is embedded in a relational context. The person is not being given a toolkit and instructed to use it. They are being helped, in the context of a trusting relationship, to develop the internal resources that will make the processing safe.
When EMDR processing begins, the integrative framework continues to inform the work. The therapist notices what is arising — what memories surface, what beliefs appear, what the body is doing — and responds with both EMDR-specific skill and broader therapeutic awareness. Sometimes the most important thing is to follow the EMDR protocol. Sometimes what is needed is to stop and simply be present with what has come up. Sometimes a psychodynamic insight or a person-centred moment of genuine connection is what allows the processing to move forward.
After a processing session, integration takes time. The person needs space to make sense of what has shifted. Person-centred and psychodynamic work helps with that — making meaning, understanding connections, building a new narrative that holds both the processing and the broader story of the person’s life.
EMDR and integrative therapy — why the combination goes further
The reason EMDR and integrative therapy together produce more than either alone is not complicated.
EMDR without a strong relational foundation tends to be technically competent but emotionally thin. The processing may happen, but without the deeper understanding and genuine human connection that allows the person to make full meaning of what has changed.
Integrative therapy without EMDR can produce profound insight and genuine relational healing — but may leave certain layers untouched. The memories stored in the body. The automatic physical responses. The beliefs that have been held since childhood and resist change through conscious understanding alone.
Research confirms what many therapists see in practice — EMDR therapy is enhanced when combined with other modalities, bringing even more depth and integration to the healing process. This link to the NCPS explains this further.
Together, EMDR and integrative therapy address the whole person. The cognitive layer — understanding what happened and why. The emotional layer — feeling genuinely met and heard in a safe relationship. The neurological layer — processing the stored memories that are driving current difficulties. The behavioural layer — building new patterns and responses that reflect the change that has happened.
The bridge between EMDR and integrative counselling
People often ask whether they should come to me for EMDR or for counselling. It is a reasonable question — and the honest answer is that in my practice, the two are not really separate things.
EMDR is a tool — a powerful one — that sits within a broader way of working. Everything I do is shaped by the same core principles: genuine listening, a real therapeutic relationship, and an approach that adapts to what each person actually needs. Sometimes that means EMDR processing is central to the work. Sometimes it barely features. Often it is part of the picture alongside other approaches.
If you have been reading the integrative talking therapy series on this site, you will already have a sense of that broader foundation — the person-centred, psychodynamic, and CBT thinking that underpins everything. EMDR sits within that, not above it or separate from it. The two bodies of work belong together. The integrative talking therapy hub is the best place to start if you want to understand how that foundation works.
What this means for you
If you are considering therapy and wondering whether EMDR, integrative counselling, or some combination of both might be right for you — the answer is almost always that the combination is most likely to be useful.
You do not need to decide in advance which approach you need. That decision emerges from the work itself — from what becomes clear in the early sessions, from what the history reveals, from what your nervous system most needs at each stage.
What you do need is a therapist who is genuinely trained in both — who can draw on EMDR’s processing power and integrative therapy’s relational depth, and who knows when to use which. This post on how to find an EMDR therapist online is worth reading if you want to understand what good training and accreditation looks like.
And this post on whether EMDR is right for you can help you think through your particular situation before getting in touch.
I work online with individuals across the UK and internationally. Sessions are 60 to 90 minutes. I offer a free initial consultation — no pressure, 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.
WordPress SEO fields for this post:
Focus keyphrase: EMDR and integrative therapy
SEO title: EMDR and integrative therapy — how they work together | Gareth Taylor Counselling
Slug: emdr-and-integrative-therapy
Meta description: EMDR and integrative therapy are more powerful together than either is alone. Find out how combining EMDR with person-centred, psychodynamic and CBT approaches creates deeper, lasting change.
Meta robots advanced: Index, Follow
Breadcrumbs title: EMDR and integrative therapy
Canonical URL: https://garethtaylorcounselling.com/emdr-therapy/emdr-and-integrative-therapy
Image alt text: Gareth Taylor, EMDR-trained integrative therapist offering EMDR and integrative therapy online across the UK and worldwide
Tags — paste this line into the WordPress tags field: EMDR and integrative therapy,EMDR counselling,integrative EMDR,EMDR person centred,EMDR psychodynamic,talking therapy,online therapy,EMDR therapy,therapy UK,counselling UK,mental health,trauma therapy,integrative counselling,Gareth Taylor