INTAMIND Approach
INTAMiND integrates evidence-based psychological approaches within a relational, trauma-informed framework.
The work is primarily informed by Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR), alongside elements of compassion-focused therapy.
These approaches are applied flexibly depending on your needs, your level of stability, and what is most clinically relevant at different points in the work.
Therapy is guided by your current experience and what feels important to you now, while also considering how earlier patterns may have shaped your responses, relationships, and sense of self.
What is Trauma?
At INTAMiND, much of the work focuses on trauma processing, particularly for women who have experienced difficulties within relationships.
Trauma is not always experienced as PTSD or C-PTSD, and whether these presentations develop can depend on factors such as biology, personal history, the duration and severity of the trauma itself, how experiences were interpreted, and the felt sense of safety and support during or after the event.
Often, trauma patterns begin earlier in life, particularly within relationships with parents or caregivers. When a child experiences emotional inconsistency, fear, or uncertainty, it can affect how they come to interpret themselves, others, and the world around them. If left unresolved, these patterns can continue into adulthood.
Rather than connecting present difficulties to earlier experiences, many people come to therapy because of the impact these patterns are having on their current lives. This may include repeated relationship difficulties, confusion, emotional overwhelm, or a persistent sense of feeling stuck.
Trauma is not only something we think about. It can also be held within the body and, over time, may lead to disconnection from the self and from others.
The video below from Bessel van der Kolk offers further insight into how trauma can affect both the mind and body and current best practice approaches to treating it.
What is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)?
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is a widely used, evidence-based approach that focuses on the relationship between thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and behaviours.
It helps you to understand how patterns of thinking and responding can develop over time, and how these patterns can maintain difficulties such as anxiety, low mood, and stress.
CBT is typically a structured and collaborative approach. It involves developing awareness of patterns and, where helpful, making small, practical changes to how you think and respond in day-to-day life.
CBT is recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) and has a strong evidence base for a range of psychological difficulties including anxiety, PTSD, depression and presentations associated with complex trauma
You can find out more about CBT [here]
How CBT is used within INTAMiND
At INTAMiND, CBT is part of a broader way of understanding how your experiences, particularly in relationships, shape the way you think, feel, and respond.
Many of the patterns that show up in relationships are not conscious choices. They are often automatic responses shaped by earlier experiences, especially where there has been emotional inconsistency, uncertainty, or distress.
CBT helps bring these patterns into awareness. Together, we notice what is happening in your thoughts, emotions, body, and behaviours, and how these interact in the present moment.
This creates space. Rather than reacting in ways that feel automatic or familiar but leave you feeling stuck, you begin to develop more choice, awareness, and a stronger sense of internal stability.
The invisible becomes visible and therefore transformable
CBT is used flexibly across all phases of the INTAMiND framework.
Regulate phase
The focus is on helping you understand your emotional and physical responses in a simple, grounded way. This helps normalise your experience and supports a sense of settling and orientation.
In this phase, we may also use gentle grounding and sense-based practices that support present-moment awareness. These help you come back into your body and reduce overwhelm when your system feels activated.
Restore phase
CBT becomes more reflective. We begin to explore patterns between thoughts, emotions, and behaviours, and gently work with new ways of responding.
This phase also tends to identify core beliefs that direct behavioural responses and assumptions that can leave us feeling stuck and despondent. Working with those deeper layers is where we tend to see the biggest shifts as the invisible becomes visible and therefore, transformable.
Rebuild phase
Through cognitive and behavioural challenge and repetition of newly learned patterns, these insights become more integrated into your sense of self, relationships, and everyday life, supporting longer-term change and stability.
What is Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR)?
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based psychological therapy designed to help people process distressing or traumatic experiences that feel “stuck” or unprocessed in the nervous system.
It works on the understanding that difficult or overwhelming experiences can be stored in a way that keeps them emotionally and physically “live” meaning they can be easily triggered in the present even when the danger is no longer there.
EMDR supports the brain’s natural processing system to reprocess these experiences so that they become less distressing and more integrated as part of a person’s past rather than something that continues to feel present.
Who will benefit from EMDR?
EMDR is suitable for individuals experiencing distress linked to past events that feel unresolved, overwhelming, or stuck, and who are interested in processing them in a structured therapeutic way.
It is commonly used in relation to trauma, post-traumatic stress, anxiety, low mood, and relational difficulties, particularly where earlier experiences continue to have an impact in the present.
EMDR is often associated with PTSD, but it can also be helpful for people who are affected by distressing or unresolved experiences, even if they have never received a formal diagnosis.
EMDR supports the brain’s natural healing processes and helps to integrate unresolved experiences. It uses a body-based approach, meaning the work involves paying attention to emotions and physical sensations, rather than focusing solely on talking or analysing.
A key part of EMDR involves staying with your experience during sessions as past events are brought into focused awareness. These responses can sometimes feel temporarily more intense and are worked with carefully, at a pace that feels manageable for you.
Trauma processing is only offered when there is sufficient emotional stability and regulation in place. This ensures that experiences can be safely contained, rather than becoming overwhelming or dysregulating.
How EMDR is used within INTAMiND
Within INTAMiND, EMDR is integrated into a wider phase-based approach that prioritises safety, regulation, and relational understanding.
EMDR is used as part of a broader therapeutic framework that considers emotional readiness, nervous system capacity, and relational context.
Processing only begins when there is a shared understanding that EMDR is appropriate and when sufficient internal stability and safety are present.
This shift opens the scope of life beyond the present
Regulate phase
The focus is on building internal safety and nervous system stability. This may include grounding strategies, psychoeducation about trauma responses, and attentional or body-based approaches that support present-moment awareness.
EMDR-informed stabilisation work may be introduced during this phase, but the emphasis is not on processing traumatic material. Instead, the aim is to strengthen regulation, safety, and the ability to stay present with internal experience.
Restore phase
EMDR is introduced more directly, where appropriate, to process memories and relational experiences that feel “stuck” or unresolved.
This is supported by Adaptive Information Processing (AIP), which describes the brain’s natural capacity to process and store experiences. When trauma is experienced, particularly overwhelming or inescapable experiences, this system can become disrupted.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation to help re-engage this natural processing system, allowing experiences to be updated and integrated. For example, beliefs such as ‘I am unlovable’ can shift towards ‘I am lovable’ or ‘I am worthy,’ with meaningful emotional and physiological shifts.
Rebuild phase
Processed material is integrated to support a more coherent and stable sense of self. The focus shifts towards meaning-making, identity, self-trust, and relational safety, allowing clients to begin living an updated life trajectory based upon the new decisions they make.
For example, when a person truly believes they are loveable, they are more likely to reach out, and to receive from others. This shift opens the scope of life beyond the present. ‘I am unlovable’ may look like - stay at home, withdraw, shrink. Whereas ‘I am lovable’ may look like - explore, connect, engage.
In everyday life, this might move from thoughts such as, ‘I don’t want to go, or others might reject me,’ towards ‘I’m curious to see what’s possible, or I am okay, I can cope.’