Transforming Police Mental Health: EMDR Group Therapy's Impact on Trauma and Stress Reduction

What we love about group EMDR is that it isn't complicated. It allows people to process distress and make difficult experiences manageable. We love that it can make a significant impact on people doing difficult jobs. People don't need to carry around an emotional rucksack of pain and stress.

We are often reading new research our field, seeing what there is to learn, what works and what needs changing. A recent 2025 study of group EMDR for early intervention in the police force stood out to us.

Their results were amazing. With just 4 sessions of group EMDR the police reported a reduced depression, anxiety, distress, and post-traumatic stress symptoms (from baseline to 6 weeks post sessions). Their depression and trauma symptons were lower still at a 6month follow up! Their anxiety and distress remained at the same reduced rate as the 6 week follow up. The authors hypothesise that this may be due to the ongoing challenges of police work.

This research confirms for us the importance of ROAR Compassion and bringing Group EMDR into high stress/demand settings. It doesn't take much to make a lasting positive impact.

If you’d like to read the research: https://tinyurl.com/yc6p4tbb