What does EMLI Stand for?

You may have heard the acronym EMLI in relation to panic attacks or anxiety attacks as some people call them. But what does it stand for and what does it actually mean?

Anyone can suffer a panic attack and when they happen they can be very frightening indeed. The fight or flight reaction that happens can be particularly overwhelming and can even lead to you stopping doing things because you worry that you will get into a cycle and have another panic attack.

 SO What does EMLI mean then ?

E is for Event

The ‘E’ stands for Event, something that happened to you that triggered this reaction. Something has happened which effectively traumatised you. This can be a single event like a car accident or a result of a growing feeling of stress and anxiety when perhaps things are difficult at work and at home.

M is for Meaning

The ‘M’ is the Meaning in that event. You perhaps tell yourself that going into a supermarket makes you have a panic attack, or the noise of a car backfiring. For people who have P.T.S.D, noise can often trigger that reaction.  

L is for Landscape

The ‘L’ is about the Landscape of your mind and body. During an anxiety attack your body is flooding itself with adrenaline and cortisol. It is the classic fight or flight reaction, however sometimes there wasn’t a real threat, just an imagined one. This means that a panic attack can chang the landscape of your brain. The part of the brain called the amygdala, sees what happens and then regulates all of our emotions, based on the response we have. After the first attack it will be checking for an event that might be like the first one. Because we act and think in patterns when you hear a noise or see something that reminds you it can trigger another attack.

I is for Inescapability

Finally the ‘I’ is the feeling of Inescapability. After a panic attack or when the feeling returns you feel trapped, you can’t escape the place or the feeling. It can happen so quickly that you just don’t know where it is coming from.

The good news is that with the right help you can learn to let go of the panic attacks, reduce the stress and anxiety and deal with them in a way that means you can stop them from happening. If you are looking for help please do drop me and email and I can let you know how I may be able to help. You can contact me on [email protected]

TV celebrities Nik and Eva Speakman who I have written a lot about in the past appeared on the ITV show This Morning with Phil and Holly to talk about their therapy and how they want it to be available on the NHS.

As a therapist myself it would be unprofessional for me to talk about another therapist and their ideas as everyone is different and all therapists bring much of themselves to any therapeutic relationship. Having said that, I am trained and qualified to help people with the techniques that I have, including EMDR and the Speakmans have no training, no qualifications and have never been a member of any recognised bodies. This means that if I point out some of the issues with what they do then the most important thing to point out is that they basically appear on This Morning for ITV and are very keen not to share what they actually do, or how they do it.

The Daily Mirror reported that ...

The Speakmans SLAMMED as they declare their psychotherapy is 'better than the NHS' and call on the Royal Family for support

Twitter users made some interesting points about the couple..

and one user made the point that no reputable therapist would claim they could help everyone, yet the Speakmans pride themselves on a very unrealistic success rate.. 

So whilst the Daily Mirror reported on how they spoke about a trial they said was taking place and the Daily Mail got on board too saying...

“The Speakmans reveal their controversial self-developed therapy method has been BACKED by an academic study for the first time (but some viewers are still not convinced)

Nik and Eva Speakman practise visual schema displacement therapyThe TV couple have faced criticism over the method as it has not been proven “

The biggest issue with the Speakmans remains that they have no training and to say the things they said about EMDR is very destructive. It is wrong to claim that a secret way of working is better than one that is proven and used around the world to help people, with stress, anxiety, PTSD and many other problems.

The other interesting thing is that despite them not talking about what they actually do behind closed doors it sounds like what they do is very similar to EMDR and may well be just them taking some of those ideas and trying to rebrand them.

According to the Mail...The couple practice visual schema displacement therapy (VSDT), also known as visual coding displacement therapy (VCDT)

This it appears uses eye movement, which coincidentally EMDR uses to great effect. Perhaps the biggest difference between what they are doing and what therapists around the word do is that you can’t actually see them unless you want to be featured on TV or pay to see their live show.

If you are looking for help then bear in mind that being trained and regulated may be a better indicator of whether someone can help you than if they appear on and ITV sofa.

What is EMDR? If you would like to find out all about EMDR and how it works then just click HERE