Background

Raj had suffered from exposure to Domestic Abuse when he was just a toddler, resulting in early life trauma. Following this, he was living with just his father and seemed settled into his home life and surroundings. However, when he was eight, he started to have nightmares and night terrors relating to past abuse, which were initially in his subconscious and only evident during sleep. This trauma started to present itself later through a somatic reaction (relating to a particular body part), which affected his ability to function and increased emotional dysregulation. 

Raj suffered from subconscious trauma, presenting through nightmares and night terrors. Over time Raj became fixated on one particular area of his body and would wake distressed and need it to be washed repeatedly. It stopped him from being able to function in daily activities and was severely impacting his life.

The use of EMDR  

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a form of psychotherapy that helps a child or young person process and recover from past experiences affecting their mental health & wellbeing. It involves using side-to-side eye movements combined with talk therapy in a specific and structured format. 

EMDR was decided as an intervention therapy for Raj to help him process the negative images, emotions, beliefs and body sensations associated with these traumatic memories that seem to be stuck. EMDR is used to support the brain process of trauma through bilateral brain stimulation whilst thinking of traumatic memories. 

Initial therapeutic work involving play activities

The initial therapeutic work with Raj involved various play activities, including painting, play-doh and storytelling. When working on the subconscious trauma, care was needed not to re-traumatise him by bringing the memory into the conscious mind. A simple children's game was used to provide a fun environment to introduce bilateral stimulation (basis of EMDR) and install positive resources. Support for his father was also given to help them manage the nightmares/night terrors. This was an effective and safe approach and helped Raj to settle at night until they subsided.

Ongoing support for current presenting trauma

After a short break of working together, Raj reconnected with our therapist and started to work on his current presenting trauma, which was demonstrated through a constant need to have one particular part of his body washed and cleaned. This led to distressing behaviours and severely impacted his daily quality of life.

To help Raj with this behaviour, our therapist had to build up his resilience, allowing him to be OK sitting with difficult emotions and creating a sense of safety while working on complex thoughts, memories and feelings. Once this foundation work was complete, our therapist then moved on to approach the actual trauma. 

This involved dyadic work (the child and parents working with the therapist) with his father using storytelling to help provide some safe distance from the trauma. In the storytelling sessions, the therapist included some additional EMDR pieces of information that were interwoven into the story effectively. Raj immediately responded well to these methods and wanted to act out the story in person, completing the EMDR process. 

Recognising positive changes for the future

Since the latest EMDR and storytelling work, Raj has thankfully not suffered from any further issues relating to his previous trauma. No further body issues have been reported, and his sleep has dramatically improved, meaning Raj can focus on being a playful, loving young child.

Raj's father reported that his nightmares have stopped and that he can manage any short periods of dysregulation. Raj is moving on with his life, managing well at school, and is more settled at home. Since his work with Kids Inspire, Raj has developed an open relationship with his father, where the pair can talk about worrying thoughts and feelings.

 “At the close of our work together Raj’s father was able to recognise the positive changes in him, he simply said ‘I am so grateful for your help’ with a warm handshake as they left.”