Trauma-informed Therapy: IFS and EMDR
I help you heal from the effects of trauma
My approach combines Internal Family Systems (IFS) and EMDR to help you understand your protective parts, process traumatic experiences & develop authentic ways of relating
Understanding trauma & its impact
Trauma can shape how we see ourselves, how we relate to other people and how we respond to situations in the present. These 'adaptations' can hijack us and create survival responses.
You may understand your difficulties intellectually yet still find yourself caught in familiar patterns of anxiety, self-criticism, people-pleasing or difficult relationships.
IFS-Informed EMDR combines Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) to help the brain digest and heal painful, stuck memories at both the emotional and nervous system levels.
Your therapy
Internal Family Systems (IFS)
IFS helps us understand the different parts of ourselves, including those that protect us from difficult feelings and those that carry vulnerability i.e. shame.
Rather than fighting or 'removing' these parts, we develop a friendly relationship. So we are not removing 'symptoms' but getting to know what the symptoms are saying to you. This can have quite an embodied & ancestral emphasis.
EMDR & Ai-EMDR therapy
EMDR helps people process distressing memories, such as abuse, neglect, abandonment, using somatic methods, to process trauma in your nervous system.
While we can start with what is present, we can also use an attachment-informed approach to EMDR, were we bridge back to your childhood.
Integrating IFS and EMDR
I integrate these approaches according to your needs. If you have intense memories we can emphasise some EMDR to process the pain and intensity of these experiences. You may find that we inevitably revisit your childhood or a particular adverse event.
What is significant is IFS begins to get to know how your nervous system adapted to cope with perhaps 'the weather' in your family and childhood. You may feel 'shamed', wrong, lonely, unlovable, worthless, defeated... IFS can help you heal these parts.
The integration has a clear rationale: use IFS to understand and work with the protective system, and use attachment-informed EMDR principles to move towards the memories and experiences where healing may occur.
Not wearing a white coat — understanding symptoms as protective parts
What Trauma Therapy Helps With
Flashbacks and Intrusive Memories
Stops unwanted, vivid re-experiences, nightmares, or sudden emotional spikes linked to the past.
Hypervigilance and Panic
Calms a nervous system stuck in "fight, flight, freeze, or fawn" mode, lowering chronic anxiety and feeling "on edge".
Avoidance Behaviours
Helps you safely re-engage with people, places, conversations, or activities that you have been steering clear of because they trigger distress.
Emotional Dysregulation
Teaches skills to manage intense emotions, anger, sadness, shame, or guilt without feeling overwhelmed.
Negative Self-Beliefs
Restructures distorted thoughts about safety, guilt, trust, or self-worth (such as "it was my fault" or "I am not safe anywhere").
Relationship and Attachment Struggles
Improves trust, boundary-setting, and emotional connection with close family, partners, or friends.
Somatic and Physical Symptoms
Addresses unexplained bodily tension, chronic pain, or physical stress responses stored in the body.
Trauma-Related Conditions
Supports recovery from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Complex PTSD (C-PTSD), acute stress disorder, prolonged grief, and childhood abuse or domestic violence.
About
I'm Johnnie Taylor, a trauma-informed psychotherapist with extensive clinical experience in the NHS and privately.
My approach draws on Internal Family Systems, EMDR and body-oriented approaches to trauma. I'm trained to Level 3 with the IFS Institute & accredited with the EMDR Association UK. I'm also a judge on for the Orwell Society's Dystopian Fiction Prize.
“Doing therapy with Johnnie has been very helpful. He is empathetic, skilled, and can switch between different modalities. Working with Johnnie helped me to regulate my nervous system better, as well as to address some of the deep-seated issues that needed working through. I would highly recommend his therapy services, especially if you’re looking for a mix of body-based approaches, such as EMDR and IFS.”
“Johnnie, I am writing to you because I did not say thank you for your help. You have a calm voice and a relaxed and friendly manner, which made you an easy person to talk to, working through problems. I hope you help many people in the future.”
“Dear Johnnie, Thank you for understanding, acceptance, kindness and help. This has meant I have been able to explore my life honestly with you. Thank you for everything — I will miss you and wish you every happiness and contentment in your life.”
Get in touch
If you’re considering trauma-informed therapy, please send a confidential email.
You can also send a WhatsApp message in confidence to +44 7525 456544.
Registered & accredited with
Based in Canterbury, Kent, UK & Online Worldwide
Heaton Road, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 3PY
- Trauma and PTSD
- Complex trauma (C-PTSD)
- Childhood trauma and adverse experiences
- Abuse, neglect, erasure, abandonment
- Anxiety, hypervigilance, flashbacks
- Depression and low mood
- Anger, resentment and feeling hostile
- Loneliness and feeling unlovable
- Chronic stress and burnout
- Relationship incapacity
- Attachment and abandonment issues
- Family scapegoating and emotional abuse
- Low self-esteem, poor confidence
- People-pleasing, shrinking and codependency
- Dissociation, DID, loss of identity
- Grief and hopelessness
- Life transitions and work issues
- Difficulties arising from narcissistic or controlling relationships
- Chronic fatigue and the emotional impact of long-term health difficulties
- Somatic conditions related to emotional problems, including pain and eating problems, dependency