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There is a dearth of qualitative research exploring the benefits and challenges of intensive Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) from the clients' perspective. Currently, research into intensive EMDR, which involves multiple therapy sessions over consecutive days, is dominated by quantitative research seeking to explore its efficacy among different population. However, these studies indicate that intensive treatment for PTSD may offer an improved clients' experience, faster reduction in symptoms, greater symptom reduction, and reduced dropout rates (Najavits, 2015). The aim of this study is to understand what might be lost and gained from intensive delivery of EMDR from the participants' perspective, and to explore participants' experiences whilst considering contextual factors such as culture, society, and environment. The study also aims to understand the impact of intensive EMDR on the participants' sense of self. Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to analyse data generated from 10 individual interviews with participants who had experienced intensive EMDR treatment for PTSD. The participants were selected through purposeful sampling and data gathered from interviews conducted via video conferencing software. Two Personal Experiential Themes (PETs) were identified: (1) 'The importance of psychological safety' and (2) 'The changing self'. The PET of the importance of psychological safety generated two emergent themes of 'A protected space' defined as a protected bubble segregated from participants' usual lives, and 'The importance of a continued connection', a connection with a part of the process which felt safe and reassuring. The PET of 'the changing self' generated two emergent themes of a 'Wow! moment', a sudden and visceral moment of insight which was pleasing, and 'Living the way I always wanted' a sense of feeling and behaving in a way which is closer to the authentic self. Intensive EMDR can be experienced as safe, facilitating agency and engagement, and affecting a meaningful change, which was valued by participants. These findings concur with Shapiro's (2001) assertion that EMDR is a humanistic and integrative psychotherapy, and correspond with established humanistic theories such as Maslow's (1954) hierarchy of needs. Implications for practice are that intensive EMDR may offer a safe, efficient, and cost-effective approach to the treatment of PTSD.

This creative-critical thesis consists of a novel, 'Jack and Bet', and a supporting critical commentary. 'Jack and Bet' tells the story of two octogenarians living in Elephant and Castle, South London, as the Heygate Estate (their former home) is demolished. The critical commentary brings together theories from literary criticism, geography, anthropology and urban studies to explore how the practice of writing and the space of the novel intersect with ideas of home. Written in the third person, the novel switches between Jack, Bet, and a young Romanian student, Marinela. These voices interweave to tell the story of Jack and Bet's struggle to maintain their independence and stay in their own home as they age; Marinela's attempts to create a new home in a foreign city; and how the friendship between the three unearths long-buried secrets which jeopardise Jack and Bet's marriage and their relationship with their son. Beginning with an overview of theories of home and the home-spaces of the novel, the commentary explores home as an active process and a physical site. It considers 'Jack and Bet', with additional analysis of novels by Ann Patchett and Anne Tyler, in relation to the verbs to leave, to stay, to return and to settle, alongside themes of loss, nostalgia and recuperation, and the idea of writing itself as a home. Written at a time of gentrification and rising house prices, Jack and Bet contributes to a growing body of research about home, gentrification and how we inhabit cities. Published just before the first Covid-lockdown of 2020, it is also a pertinent exploration of home and the value of our older population. Together the novel and the commentary argue for a more expansive idea of domestic fiction, and a richer, more interdisciplinary approach to home and the novel.