Richard Worthing-Davies

Richard writes:  “I was born and grew up in Wales, in a small mining community in the South.  My education took me to London University and then to Carnegie Melon University in the USA.  Following this I worked in the corporate and charity/non-profit sectors for 35 years in the UK and the USA.  

After a medical emergency threatened to end my ability to travel – a requirement of my work - I, along with my American wife Sally, decided to move into the therapy world, which would allow us to work from home in the UK. We chose to train in systemic therapy at Birkbeck College and Kensington Consultation Centre in London - Sally already had some experience of working with families as a Speech and Language therapist – and I had studied cybernetics in the USA, which linked with systemic theory. 

We set up in private practice with much of our work coming from a Social Services department.  This is when we began to come across adults and children with PTSD so, both of us went to be trained in EMDR, eventually becoming Consultants, committed to sharing skills and knowledge with other therapists. This is what motivated us to start emdrgateway in 2018.  

I am what the Economist Magazine – long my favourite newspaper - called an OWL (Older, Working Less, Still earning) and still enjoying it.  Though now working with only a few adults, I still have a large supervision practice and am deeply involved in emdrgateway.

Outside of corporate life and therapy, I had the possibility of becoming a professional singer many years ago, which I declined because of the huge uncertainty it would bring to our family’s life.  However, I did train as a singer and as I got older, and time allowed, performed as a bass-baritone-baritone recitalist and soloist.  I retired two years ago from this - my ‘other life’ – in which EMDR actually played a key role. You can read about ‘how’ by visiting the Wrap-up section of Video 022 in the Video library, which is about using EMDR with Performance Anxiety.