Prince Harry has spoken out about his experience with specialist therapy EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing.
In the third episode of AppleTV docuseries 'The Me You Can't See', Oprah accompanies the Duke of Sussex to his EMDR appointment with therapist Sanja Oakley.
He tells her: "EMDR is always something that I wanted to try and that was one of the varieties of different forms of healing or curing that I was willing to experiment with, and I never would have been open to that had I not put in the work and the therapy that I’ve done over the years."
Footage shows Harry close his eyes and cross his arms as he receives treatment for anxiety attacks that are triggered when he returns to the UK.
What is EMDR?
EMDR is a relatively new therapy that is commonly used to treat people with trauma or PTSD.
It is designed to alleviate the negative emotions, beliefs and body responses that come with traumatic memories.
The person who is being treated will be asked to recall negative memories while taking part in guided bilateral stimulation (stimulating the left and right sides of the brain). This is usually rapid side-to-side eye movement, but can also be tapping either side of the body.
The patient's attention will be divided, revisiting distressing memories but with the EMDR movements keeping them anchored to the present.
It kickstarts a natural healing process that replaces negative images and emotions, and allows the patient to view them in a way that doesn't feel traumatising.
EMDR consultant Dr Justin Havens told the BACP : "Someone can tell you that your negative belief about yourself is not true, but you need to know that for yourself.
"With EMDR, the change in perspective comes from within and the transformative changes feels true at a gut level.
"There can be a remarkable change in how people feel, from feelings of terror or shame to calmness and empowerment."
Some patients only need six sessions of EMDR to feel much better, but this depends on the severity of their trauma or PTSD.
Prince Harry uses EMDR to treat unresolved anxiety and trauma that stems from his anger at the media and the death of his mother, Princess Diana.
In the documentary he said: "For most of my life I've always felt worried, concerned, a little bit tense and uptight whenever I fly back into the UK, whenever I fly back into London.
"And I could never understand why. I was aware of it, I wasn't aware of it at the time when I was younger, but after I started doing therapy stuff I became aware of it.
"'I was like, why do I feel so uncomfortable? And of course for me London is a trigger, unfortunately, because of what happened to my mum, and because of what I experienced and what I saw."
Harry told Oprah that it was his relationship with Meghan Markle that prompted him to seek professional help.
He said: "I quickly established that if this relationship was going to work then I was going to have to deal with my past, because there was anger there, and it wasn't anger at her, it was just anger, and she recognised it, she saw it.
"Well, so how do I fix this? And it was a case of needing to go back to the past, go back to the point of trauma, deal with it, process it, and then move forward.
"Having now done therapy for four and bit years, five years now, for me it's all about prevention."
