Sanna Hekkala-Rolfe

I am an accredited EMDR therapist (UK and Europe) and a certified Sensorimotor Psychotherapist, using body‑ and somatically oriented approaches in my practice. I have integrated EMDR into my therapeutic work since 2013 and have practised Sensorimotor Psychotherapy since 2021. I specialise in trauma, particularly complex developmental and relational trauma, and in associated mental health difficulties. EMDR and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy are especially well suited to addressing trauma‑related emotional dysregulation, dissociation and chronic pain. EMDR therapy is an evidence-based approach that can be used with children, young people and adults experiencing a wide range of mental health and emotional difficulties. Unlike many traditional talking and behavioural therapies, EMDR does not always require you to talk in details about every aspect of a difficult experience. Instead, it uses eye movements or other forms of bilateral stimulation to help the brain process distressing experiences, memories or feeling states (parts) that may feel 'stuck' and continue to affect how you feel, think or respond in the present. Many people choose EMDR alongside other therapies as a different, more experimental way of working with emotional difficulties. It can be helpful for difficulties such as trauma related intrusions, flashbacks, anxiety, OCD, addictions, prolonged grief and depression. For clients living with chronic or persistent pain, particularly where a doctor or specialist has suggested that psychosomatic factors may be involved, I offer an integrative approach combining Mark Grant’s EMDR protocol for chronic pain with Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. Grant’s protocol is grounded in the understanding that persistent pain can become “wired” alongside strong emotional states from the time it began or intensified - fear, helplessness, anger, or grief that never fully processed can keep the nervous system in a heightened state, amplifying and maintaining the pain signal long after any original reason for the pain has healed. Using EMDR’s bilateral stimulation, we work to process these underlying emotional and memory networks, which can reduce the intensity and grip of the pain itself. Alongside this, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (suitable for both adults and children) brings a body-based lens to the work, helping clients track sensation, tension, and protective patterns as they arise moment to moment. Together, we explore what may be keeping pain alive in the body’s implicit memory even once the original cause has resolved: bracing patterns, unfinished defensive responses, or associations between certain movements, situations, or emotions and the pain experience. This combined approach supports the nervous system in learning that safety is possible again.