Psychotherapy for Trauma in Singapore: How MEMI Helps the Brain Heal Safely

By Bernadette Chin, Principal Therapist, My Inner Child Clinic

When the Mind Knows but the Body Still Reacts

“I know I’m safe now, but my body still braces every time I think about it.”

Some clients experience this in varying degrees after they saw a counsellor or psychotherapist, and that is why they come to My Inner Child Clinic for trauma healing.

That is the paradox of trauma — your thinking brain knows the event is over, but your survival brain hasn’t formed new associations and neural connections to build resilience and safety.

At My Inner Child Clinic, our psychotherapy for trauma combines relational safety with neuroscience-based methods such as Multichannel Eye Movement Integration (MEMI).

The goal isn’t to erase memories, but to help the body reorganise their thoughts about how capable and resourceful they were in spite of the circumstances.

1. The Science Behind Eye Movements and Emotional Regulation

When you move your eyes rhythmically while recalling emotional content, the brain’s hemispheres communicate — a process known as inter-hemispheric integration.

Research demonstrates that eye movements can:

Reduce amygdala activation, lowering fear and stress reactivity (Pagani et al., 2012 & 2015).

Activate the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, areas linked to contextual memory and emotional regulation (Stickgold 2002).

Mimic REM-sleep-like processing, consolidating emotional experiences (Christman et al., 2003).

Increase working-memory load, which weakens the vividness and distress of traumatic imagery (van den Hout & Engelhard 2012).

These mechanisms mirror what the brain does during sleep — filing emotional experience into long-term memory so it no longer feels like a present threat.

More on MEMI for Trauma

2. EMDR vs MEMI: Two Pathways to Integration

How EMDR and MEMI are used in trauma therapy sessions

EMDR helps to desensitise distress.

MEMI’s aim is to desensitise and integrate — allowing memory fragments to reorganise and integrate moments of agency, strengths and resources around this situation.

3. Working at the Hippocampal Level — Not the Amygdala

Trauma therapy can either soothe or flood the nervous system; the difference lies in how questions are asked.

At My Inner Child Clinic, we craft every conversation to engage the hippocampus, not the amygdala — keeping clients reflective, not reactive.

The Science

The amygdala encodes intensity and threat.

The hippocampus provides context, sequence, and meaning.

When therapy relies on detailed emotional retelling, the amygdala dominates — heart rate rises, reasoning narrows, and the client re-enters survival mode.

When the therapist invites calm observation, the hippocampus engages, restoring time and meaning (Liberzon & Sripada 2008; McEwen 2016).

This is why the salutogenic model of psychotherapy we use, does not include EFT or Exposure Therapy if it risks triggering the amygdala response.

Dialogue and Co-Regulation

Metaphorically, our approach is like “staying near the doorway of memory, not inside the room.”

In some situations, the dissociation may look like it is even further, like the 20th row at the cinema, looking at the event.

We help clients build somatic awareness - notice sensations as information, and correct physiological responses.

If we start describing physiological experiences instead of naming the emotion, it is easier to talk about a trauma.

Clients typically find it easier to say "I felt the grab in my stomach and my legs turned into jelly" then to say "I got so anxious I froze".

Both use tone, pacing, and pause to engage the hippocampus and gain self awareness.

The rhythmic eye movements of MEMI stimulate hemispheric coordination while this regulated dialogue sustains hippocampal reflection. Together, they enable integration without re-activation.

4. MEMI Within Our Psychotherapy Framework

At My Inner Child Clinic, MEMI is integrated within a broader trauma-informed psychotherapy process:

1. Stabilisation & Regulation – Building nervous-system literacy and safety cues.

2. Integration (MEMI) – Gently connecting sensory and emotional fragments without re-traumatisation.

3. Meaning & Reconnection – Exploring how early adaptations shaped current patterns, and using Inner Child Healing to transform protection into strength.

This salutogenic process — from salus (health) + genesis (origin) — focuses on restoring capacity, not diagnosing damage.

Trauma Therapy Singapore