What You Need to Know About EMDR Eye movement desensitisation & reprocessing
EMDR is a therapeutic approach that can help people process difficult experiences and trauma from the past. Although an event may be over, memories that have not been fully processed can continue to cause symptoms in the present. Examples of these symptoms include hypervigilance, anxious or intrusive thoughts, heightened emotions and physical responses. EMDR offers a structured method of treatment to process traumatic material without having to relive the event.
EMDR follows an eight phase framework. The assessment and preparation phases are vital, as they create a secure foundation, and provide resources for emotional regulation, prior to the work ahead. This helps the client feel informed, supported and ready for processing which will happen later in treatment.
During these early phases, we work collaboratively and at a pace that feels manageable. Together, we:
- Develop practical strategies for emotional regulation.
- Build supportive resources, such as The Calm Space exercise and Earth, Air, Water and Fire and other grounding techniques.
- Explore relevant aspects of personal and family history with care and sensitivity.
- Create a genogram and personal timeline to understand important experiences events and patterns.
This timeline allows significant life events to be identified without reliving the distressing experiences. Once emotional regulation has been established, we can gently move towards Phase 3, which is choosing and preparing a memory for processing.
Guided by the client’s timeline, we agree on an appropriate Target Memory. This may be an earliest experience or worst traumatic memory .
Once the Target Memory is selected, we follow the following steps
- Describe the image which represents the memory
- The negative cognition connected to the image
- The positive cognition the client would prefer to hold about themselves.
- Score the level of validity of the positive cognition
- The emotions and physical sensations that arise in the present.
- The current level of distress, measured using the Subjective Units of Distress SUD, scale.
This careful assessment prepares the client for Phase 4 which is desensitisation.
During phase 4, the client is provided bilateral stimulation. In my practice, I use a light bar and handheld pulsers. These provide a gentle alternating stimulus while the client connects to their Target Memory, they are asked to notice the memory rather like running an old fashioned cine film. The aim is to support processing while helping the client remain connected to the present rather than reliving the experience.
The length of this phase varies from person to person and may extend over two or more sessions.
- Phase 5 — Installation: The positive cognition is strengthened using bilateral stimulation, with slower eye movements.
- Phase 6 — Body scan: The client holds the positive cognition in mind while noticing any remaining physical sensations.
- Phase 7 — Closure: The session concludes with grounding, debriefing and support to help the client leave feeling settled.
- Phase 8 — Evaluation: Progress is reviewed
Target Memories identified on the timeline are then processed in an agreed sequence, at a pace that supports the client’s sense of safety and readiness. If the client has further memories as is often the case, then phases 3 to 8 are repeated.
September 2026