What Is EMDR Therapy? The Basics
TL;DR: EMDR is more than eye movements. It is an eight-phase therapy that looks at how past experiences may still be affecting your thoughts, emotions, beliefs, body, and nervous system in the present.
You and your therapist will work together to understand what you want to work on, build resources, identify experiences to process, and notice what changes along the way. During reprocessing, you may use eye movements, tapping, or sounds while noticing what comes up.
You do not have to remember all eight phases, visualize clearly, know exactly what to say, or “do EMDR right.” Your therapist will guide you through the process, and preparation and resourcing can be returned to whenever needed.
Prefer a video? Scroll down for a video from the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) that explains what EMDR therapy.
Your therapist mentioned EMDR. Now you are wondering what exactly that means, why there are eye movements involved, and what you are actually supposed to do. Here are the basics.
What Is EMDR?
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing.
It is a type of therapy used to work with trauma, distressing experiences, and the ways past experiences may still be affecting you now.
EMDR looks at more than just your thoughts. It also pays attention to emotions, memories, beliefs, body sensations, and nervous system responses.
EMDR has eight phases, including learning about your history, preparation and resourcing, reprocessing, and checking in on what has changed.
You do not necessarily spend every EMDR session reprocessing memories.
What Is the AIP Model?
EMDR is based on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model.
The basic idea is:
Your brain naturally processes and connects experiences.
Sometimes overwhelming or distressing experiences can get “stuck” and continue to affect how you feel or respond in the present.
You might know something logically, while your body or emotions still react differently.
EMDR is designed to help your brain continue processing and integrating those experiences.
Why the Eye Movements?
During EMDR, your therapist may use eye movements, alternating tapping, or sounds. This is called bilateral stimulation.
Researchers are still studying exactly why it helps, but there are several theories:
Dual attention: Part of your attention is on the memory while another part stays connected to what is happening in the present.
Working memory: Holding a memory in mind while following eye movements gives your brain more than one task at once, which may change how vivid or distressing the memory feels.
Memory processing and sleep: Researchers have also explored similarities between EMDR and some of the ways the brain processes and integrates memories during REM sleep.
There is not one proven explanation for exactly how EMDR works.
What Can I Expect?
EMDR has eight phases that guide the work you and your therapist do together. You will not necessarily move through them in a straight line or complete one phase per session.
History & Treatment Planning: Understanding what you are experiencing, relevant parts of your history, and what you want to work on.
Preparation: Learning about EMDR, asking questions, and developing resources that can support you during the process. Preparation and resourcing can continue throughout EMDR as needed. You and your therapist can return to resources, add new ones, or slow things down at different points in the work.
Assessment: Identifying what you are working on and noticing the thoughts, beliefs, emotions, images, and body sensations connected to it.
Desensitization: Using eye movements, tapping, or other bilateral stimulation while noticing what comes up as your brain processes the experience.
Installation: Strengthening a more adaptive belief connected to the experience.
Body Scan: Noticing what you experience in your body and whether anything still feels connected to the experience.
Closure: Shifting attention back to the present and preparing for what you may notice between sessions.
Reevaluation: Checking in on what has changed and deciding together where the work goes next.
All eight phases are EMDR. Reprocessing is one part of the process, not the whole therapy.
What Happens During Reprocessing?
During reprocessing, your therapist will ask you to bring up part of an experience while using eye movements, tapping, or another form of bilateral stimulation.
Your therapist will then say “What are you noticing now?” and “Go with that” many times as you reprocess. You might notice a thought, emotion, body sensation, memory, image, sound, new connection, or something that seems completely random.
You do not have to figure out what should happen or consciously decide where your brain needs to go. You notice what comes up, and your therapist helps guide the process. EMDRIA similarly describes this part of reprocessing as noticing thoughts, feelings, and body sensations without judging or trying to change them.
A Few Things to Know
You do not have to tell every detail of a difficult experience.
You do not have to visualize clearly.
You do not have to know what something means.
You do not have to have a particular or dramatic reaction.
You can ask questions at any point.
You can tell your therapist when something is not working for you.
You can slow down or pause.
EMDR is something you and your therapist do together. Your therapist guides the process, and you let them know what you are experiencing along the way.
The Biggest Thing to Remember
You do not need to “do EMDR right.”
You are not trying to force yourself to think differently or come up with the perfect insight. EMDR gives you a way to work with thoughts, emotions, memories, beliefs, body sensations, and nervous system responses while allowing new connections to develop.
Sometimes you already know something logically. The parts of you that learned something through experience may need more than logic alone to experience it differently.
Learn More About EMDR
For additional information, the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) has resources created specifically to explain EMDR to clients, including an overview of the eight phases and what you may experience during EMDR therapy.
