EMDR Group Therapy for Stress and Anxiety
This EMDR Group Therapy is suitable for individuals who experience stress, anxiety or traumatic experiences in their life and address their ongoing impact on their daily life. This group is open to anyone managing stress, anxiety or symptoms of PTSD.
Understanding Stress and Its Effects
While stress is a normal response to life’s challenges, when it becomes intense or persistent, it can overwhelm both the body and mind. In these situations, the nervous system may become trapped in a “fight, flight, or freeze” state. Unresolved experiences or old memories can repeatedly trigger stress responses, leading to physical tension, disrupted sleep, irritability, and difficulties in coping with daily demands.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) helps by identifying stressful memories or triggers that fuel current stress and anxiety and helps to reprocess those experiences so that the body and brain no longer react as if the event is still happening. EMDR doesn’t just help with trauma—it’s also effective for reducing stress/anxiety by targeting unresolved experiences and changing the way the nervous system responds to triggers.
Benefits of EMDR Therapy for Stress and Anxiety
- Reduces physical reactivity (calms the fight–flight response).
- Decreases intensity of worry or intrusive thoughts.
- Replaces negative self-beliefs (e.g., “I can’t cope” → “I can handle challenges”).
- Builds resilience for managing future stressors.
EMDR helps people move past the memories, triggers, and beliefs that keep stress and anxiety active. By calming the nervous system and reprocessing difficult experiences, EMDR allows people to feel more resilient, balanced, and in control.
Confidentiality and Privacy in EMDR Group Therapy Sessions
Within our EMDR group therapy sessions, strict confidentiality is maintained at all times. Participants are not required to discuss or disclose any details of their distressing experiences or past traumas during group interactions. Throughout the therapy process, clients do not share personal trauma histories with other group members, ensuring a safe and supportive environment focused on individual healing and emotional regulation.
Structure of EMDR Group Therapy Sessions
The group functions within a structured framework, comprising up to four participants and two clinicians. In the initial group EMDR session, confidentiality will be thoroughly discussed, and resources for grounding and establishing a sense of present safety will be developed. In the later sessions, participants will reprocess their stressful experiences without disclosing any of its details to other group members. A clinician will provide assistance to any participant who may have difficulty managing the session, offering support for emotional regulation as necessary. Three subsequent sessions will follow a similar format, enabling individuals to address the same memory, a part of a memory, or a different memory in each session. In the final EMDR sessions, participants will focus on using what they have learned to strengthen personal abilities and resources, with the aim of improving their ability to handle future situations and increase resilience.
When:
Group 1: August 11th to September 8th – 2026
Every Tuesdays for 5 weeks from 4 pm to 6 pm.
Venue:
The Bealey Centre, 120 Hills Road (Wharfdale Room)
Fees for EMDR Group Therapy Programs:
Individuals $900 and Business $1300 (please note that this is partially funded by Aura Health)
Research participant’s rate: Individual $450 and Business $650 Individual $450 and Business $650 (Those who are willing to participate in research need to complete questionnaires on a range of wellbeing measures before and after participating in the EMDR group and this is funded by Aura Health).
Our Facilitators
Dr Jain Joseph PhD
Jain Joseph is a clinical psychologist, an accredited EMDR therapist and EMDR Case Consultant in training. He is currently working towards completing his advanced accreditation in Schema Therapy. He holds a Masters in Applied Psychology (Industrial Psychology), a Master of Philosophy in Clinical Psychology (M.Phil), and a PhD in Psychology.
Ambily M Joseph
Ambily M Joseph is a registered social worker who will be co-facilitating this group. She holds a Masters in Applied Psychology (M.Sc.) and a Masters in Social Work (MSW), and is trained in EMDR therapy.
Please fill out this registration form or email us to aurahealthnz@gmail.com to register yourself. Once we have received your registration form a confirmation email and an invoice will be sent out. You need to make full payment before the start of the program.