What Is EMDR? - EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization And Processing) Therapy Explained

By: Sarah Fader

Updated May 27, 2021

What Is EMDR?

EMDR is a type of therapy that Francine Shapiro developed. It started in 1988 and has since become a popular form of mental health treatment. EMDR helps people who have experienced severe trauma in their lives. Traumatic events have a way of sticking with people. It's difficult to function when you're experiencing flashbacks to your trauma. It can be disruptive to your daily routine. During EMDR, the client has an opportunity to confront their trauma in a safe environment. The individual recalls upsetting or distressing images while the therapist moves their finger back and forth in front of the client's eyes to encourage rapid eye movement stimulation. This side-by-side rapid eye movement is a type of bilateral stimulation. Another way that EMDR is conducted is through hand tapping. The therapist guides the client to tap places on their body that stimulate brain activity while discussing their traumatic experiences. EMDR is helpful in helping people with trauma and can treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. EMDR uses eye movements and helps the person recall the different memories they have surrounding trauma to desensitize themselves to these distressing memories.

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How Does EMDR Work?

The way EMDR works is relatively straightforward. The client is asked to recall their traumatic experience. The therapist asks the person to tap or move their eyes while recalling said trauma or traumas. EMDR helps the mind heal from psychological trauma as well as the body. If you think about it as a wound, trauma injures the body, and the mind and EMDR help heal that gash on both levels. The statistics show that it works. According to Kaiser Permanente (a healthcare company), 100% of trauma victims and 77% of people that experience complex trauma benefited from EMDR. It also is a helpful tool in aiding war Veterans and soldiers at large.

What Is Bilateral Stimulation?

When you learn about EMDR, you often hear the term bilateral stimulation. What that means is the therapist helps a client stimulate both parts of their brain. The way this is accomplished is the client tracks different stimuli with their eyes. For example, an EMDR therapist moves their finger back and forth while the client follows it to stimulate different parts of the mind. Tapping is another example of bilateral stimulation. The therapist shows the client where to tap on their body to stimulate their brain. Some EMDR therapists use light sources to help the client engage in bilateral stimulation. The individual in treatment will follow the light back-and-forth with their eyes to engage different brain hemispheres. Bilateral stimulation is a significant part of the phases of EMDR.

What Are The Different Stages Or Phases Of EMDR?

EMDR has eight phases. An individual must be ready to move from one phase to the next. People need to understand when they engage in EMDR, it is an intense process. The person has to be ready to confront their trauma. It's important to note that a therapist will spend a long time gaining background information on the client's traumatic experience before using bilateral stimulation and confronting the trauma.

Here are the different stages of this treatment. You can see the gradual development of EMD our treatment and how these stages help individuals heal from trauma.

Phase 1: Obtaining Client History And Treatment Planning. Phase one can take one to two therapy sessions, and it involves the client stating what happened to them that created their trauma. They discuss what situations in their life caused them distress or to experience flashbacks. The individual also identifies what coping skills they need to learn to begin to feel better.. During this phase, you are identifying the problem.

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Phase 2: Preparation. Phase two can take anywhere from one to four sessions and can be a more involved process for people who have severe or complex trauma. During phase two, the therapist prepares the client to engage in bilateral stimulation, such that they don't have to talk about their disturbing memories in detail. However, they will talk about what they experienced generally and what they feel about it now. During phase two, the client discusses how the trauma made them feel prepared for the intensity of phase three.

Phase 3: Assessment. During phase three, the client selects a specific memory or mental picture to target during the EMDR treatment. Then the client is asked to choose a statement or a negative connotation that they have about their trauma. For example, one negative mantra or association could be, "It was my fault," or "I'm a bad person." Then the client chooses a positive statement to replace or reframe this statement, such as, "I don't have control over what happened to me, but I can heal," or "I did the best that I could." During phase three, the therapist asks the client on a scale of 1-7 how much they believe the statement. One meaning that the statement is false, and seven meaning it feels entirely true. In this way, one identifies how much they believe the negative statement. The other thing that happens during the assessment is the client talks about the emotions that accompany the trauma and the belief system.

Additionally, they rate their beliefs using subjective units of disturbance (or SUD) from 0-10. 0 meaning it doesn't disturb you at all, and ten meaning it's the worst thing you've ever experienced. Now you are dealing with reprocessing. If you're talking about a single traumatic event, it takes around three sessions of EMDR to make headway. However, it can take longer with a complex traumatic situation.

Phase 4: Desensitization. During this phase, the client focuses on their distressing emotion and how they feel, and the therapist measures the SUD. The therapist helps the client, utilizing the different eye movements or tapping techniques while starting with the target memory and moving forward from there.

Phase 5: Installation. During installation, it's time to strengthen the positive belief by doing away with the negative sentiment and replacing it with an affirmative one. The therapist aims to instill in the client the validity of cognition or VOC. So, the goal is to help the person get to a level of truth, keeping in mind that 0 = I don't believe it at all, and 7 = I believe it is entirely true. One thing to note about EMDR is that one cannot completely and utterly erase negative thoughts and memories. Still, you can help yourself feel better, and you can begin to change your relationship to specific ideas or memories.

Phase 6: Body Scan. After the therapist helps the client understand the positive way of thinking about the situation, they focus on how the traumatic event affects the body. It's interesting because trauma embeds itself in a person's physical being sometimes without the person affected being consciously aware of its presence. The therapist helps their client understand where in the body they are feeling trauma and how to work through those sensations.

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Phase 7: Closure. During phase seven, the client gets back to a state of grounding. The therapist continues to use bilateral stimulation, i.e., the back and forth eye movements, and ends the session by taking the client out of the memory, thereby helping them come back to a sense of stasis.

Phase 8: Reevaluation. During reevaluation, the client is asked to reassess how traumatic the memory is to them after using the bilateral stimulation or hand tapping. They will tell their therapist how much their thoughts have changed about it.

Who Benefits From EMDR?

Anybody who has experienced a traumatic event or complex trauma can potentially benefit from EMDR. It is a process that helps people let go of negative thoughts and experiences surrounding their trauma and get to a place of acceptance.

Is EMDR An Intense Process?

EMDR can be intense, so it is important to use the beginning phases, as mentioned above. In this way, the therapist may prepare the client accordingly to know what they are getting into. The client must be ready psychologically to process the memories and feelings that EMDR sessions can elicit to don't get themselves in over their head.

How Do I Know If I'm Ready For EMDR Treatment?

It's crucial to talk to your therapist about your trauma to understand whether or not EMDR is an appropriate form of treatment for you. You can learn more about EMDR by consulting with a licensed mental health professional and deciding if you're ready to engage in this treatment process.

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How Can I Find Out More About EMDR?

You can read about EMDR online and talk to a licensed mental health professional about it. If you have experienced significant trauma, EMDR could be right for you. Before you make that decision, it's important you research this form of treatment and talks to the mental health provider about it. You don't want to jump into this type of trauma treatment without knowing the facts. Consider meeting with an online mental health professional and discussing the best trauma treatment for you presently and whether EMDR might be right for you. BetterHelp has a great network of therapists, and you can learn more about online therapy if you click here.