Help with recurring nightmares
Recurring nightmares are treatable in their own right. You do not have to wait for the rest of the work to finish before the nights improve.
Nightmares are a symptom with their own treatment
Where nightmares follow trauma, they are usually the last symptom to go if treated only indirectly. Targeting them specifically — with imagery rehearsal and hypnotic re-scripting — often improves sleep well before the wider trauma work concludes.
- The same dream repeating for months or years
- Waking with a start, sweating, disoriented
- Fear of going to bed at all
- Partners disturbed by shouting or thrashing
Re-scripting the ending
You rehearse a changed version of the dream while awake and regulated, repeatedly. The brain updates the script. This is a well-established approach and it does not require reliving the original event in detail.
When the nightmare is a memory
If the dream replays a real event, EMDR is used on the memory itself, and stabilisation always comes first so that processing does not intensify the nights.
Common questions
Are night terrors the same as nightmares?+
No. Night terrors happen in deep sleep with little recall and are handled differently, so tell me which it is on the call.
My nightmares are from service. Can this help?+
Yes — service-related nightmares are a regular part of this caseload.
How long until the nights change?+
Often within a few sessions when nightmares are targeted directly.
Treat the nights directly
One free fifteen-minute conversation to work out whether the nightmares should be the first target.