Eye Movement Desensitization and reprocessing therapy (EMDR)

What is EMDR Therapy?

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy focused on treating post-traumatic stress and other trauma-specific conditions through indirect exposure to distressing and emotionally disturbing stimuli, while simultaneously focusing on external stimuli such as lateral eye movements, hand-tapping, and audio stimulation.

Put more simply, EMDR utilizes rhythmic, oftentimes intentionally distracting stimuli while tackling an emotionally sensitive subject, such as a previous memory, experience, thought, or nightmare, to address and reprocess the negative experience or emotion without causing a client to shut down in response to the exposure.

Studies on the effectiveness of EMDR have found that accessing a traumatic memory through an EMDR session allowed clients to re-experience and reprocess the memory without extreme reactivity. This allows them to process what happened in such a way that their experience is “complete”, eliminating emotional distress and allowing for new insights to develop instead.

Close up on eyes of mother and daughter faces next to one another

How Does EMDR Therapy Work?

An EMDR session lasts up to 90 minutes. EMDR is usually a short-term treatment form, meaning a therapist will usually recommend no more than a few sessions. However, the timing between these sessions can differ, as does the speed at which someone goes through the steps of an EMDR program. It might take weeks for a client to develop the level of trust they need to delve into their memories – for other clients, the process may go faster.

There are three prongs and eight phases to EMDR therapy. The three prongs refer to the big picture that EMDR therapy seeks to address: the past (memories), present (discomfort), and future (positive behaviors/actions).

The eight phases describe each step of EMDR therapy:

Treatment planning: discussing a client’s history and developing a treatment plan based on what they want to overcome.
Preparation: establishing trust between a therapist and their client, explaining the process in great detail, and setting expectations.
Assessment: identifying the event, feeling, image, or belief that should be reprocessed. At this stage, therapists measure out responses to create a baseline from which to improve.
Desensitization: bilateral stimulation, eye movements, taps, and other forms of distraction or desensitization while thinking about the trauma. This continues until a client’s negative responses decrease substantially.
Installation: reinforcing or strengthening a positive belief in place of the negative feeling or event, learning to associate new memories, feelings, and thoughts in place of what was previously felt.
Body scanning: reprocessing the emotion and the event while mentally feeling every body part from head to toe. Sometimes, this can elicit lingering disturbances, uncovering another element that requires addressing.
Closure: after returning to a state of calm, a therapist can guide their client to closure if they experience no distress while recalling the event, believe wholeheartedly in the validity of their newly installed positive thought, and experience no other disturbing sensations in their body.
Reevaluation: with each session, a therapist and client discuss the trauma to check for signs of distress and test their positive reinforcement.

EMDR Therapy at Resolutions

EMDR is almost always part of a longer treatment plan for a trauma-specific condition, and only considered as an option when both the client and therapist agree on it. It’s important for clients to understand what will happen during an EMDR session, and to clearly state their expectations and goals for the process – such as addressing or minimizing the impact of a specific recurring experience or memory.