What Is EMDR Therapy? What It Is, What a Session Involves, and Who It Suits
EMDR without the mystique: what the eye movements are for, what actually happens in a session, what the evidence shows, and what to ask a therapist before you start.
Part of our guide to 50 grounding techniques for anxiety, PTSD and CPTSD.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing. It is a structured, eight-phase psychotherapy for distress attached to specific memories. Instead of describing what happened at length, you hold part of the memory in mind in short bursts while your attention moves rhythmically from side to side — eye movements, alternating taps, or alternating sounds.
The aim is not to forget. It is for a memory to become something you can recall without your body reacting as though it were happening now.
Why the side-to-side part
This is the bit that sounds odd, and the honest answer is that the mechanism is still debated.
EMDR is built on the Adaptive Information Processing model: the idea that overwhelming experiences can be stored raw and unintegrated, still carrying the original images, beliefs and sensations. In that model, bilateral stimulation while briefly holding the memory helps the brain finish processing it could not complete at the time.
The leading alternative explanation is working-memory taxation — doing two things at once reduces how vivid and emotionally charged a recalled image feels, and the memory is then re-stored in that softer form.
Either way, what is well established is that the treatment helps many people with PTSD. What is still argued over is exactly why.
The eight phases, plainly
- History taking. What you want to work on, and what you can currently cope with.
- Preparation. Grounding and settling skills, so you are not relying on the session alone.
- Assessment. Choosing a target: an image, the belief it carries ("I'm not safe", "it was my fault"), the feeling, and where you notice it in the body.
- Desensitisation. Short sets of bilateral stimulation, noticing whatever arrives, briefly reporting it, repeating.
- Installation. Strengthening a more useful belief about yourself.
- Body scan. Checking for leftover tension.
- Closure. Deliberately ending, with grounding, even if processing is unfinished.
- Re-evaluation. Starting the next session by checking what held.
What a session actually looks like
You sit, clothed, and mostly you notice. Distress is rated from 0 to 10 so change is tracked rather than assumed. You are not required to narrate the event in detail — one of the main reasons people choose this route.
A good therapist spends real time in phases 1 and 2. If someone wants to start processing in your first session, that is a reason to ask questions.
Does EMDR work?
EMDR is recommended for PTSD in NICE, WHO and APA guidance, with a large randomised-trial base, strongest in single-incident adult PTSD.
For complex or repeated trauma the picture is more careful: the same trials do not straightforwardly transfer, and the preparation phase generally needs to be much longer. Many trauma therapists use a phased approach — stability first, processing later, sometimes months later.
Anyone promising a fixed number of sessions is guessing.
Who it may suit — and when to wait
Often a good fit: distress tied to identifiable events; memories that intrude; people who find talking in detail retraumatising.
Reason to slow down: current danger, acute crisis, heavy dissociation, or no support around you between sessions. Stability comes before processing in every serious trauma model. If dissociation is frequent for you, say so at assessment — it changes the pacing, not the possibility.
What you might feel afterwards
Tiredness, vivid dreams, more material surfacing between sessions, or a strange flatness. This is common and usually settles. Keep the grounding and breathing practices close in the days after a session, and tell your therapist what came up.
Questions worth asking a therapist
- What is your EMDR training, and are you accredited?
- How much experience do you have with complex trauma specifically?
- How long do you usually spend on preparation before processing?
- What do you do if I become overwhelmed mid-session?
- How will we close a session that isn't finished?
Can you do EMDR yourself?
No. Self-administered bilateral stimulation is not EMDR, and it can open difficult material with nothing in place to close it. Bilateral sounds can be pleasant for general settling — that is a different thing from processing a memory.
Related Recovery Trauma™ resources
- Compare the main trauma therapies
- What somatic therapy is and what a session involves
- How to regulate your nervous system after trauma
- PTSD triggers, and how to work with them
- What complex PTSD is
Sources
- NICE guideline NG116, Post-traumatic stress disorder
- World Health Organization (2013), Guidelines for the management of conditions specifically related to stress
- American Psychological Association, Clinical practice guideline for the treatment of PTSD
- Shapiro, F. (2018), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, 3rd edition
- van den Hout & Engelhard (2012), working-memory account of EMDR
Educational information only. Recovery Trauma™ does not provide therapy, diagnosis or medical treatment.
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Frequently asked questions
What is EMDR therapy?
EMDR is an eight-phase structured psychotherapy for distress attached to specific memories. You hold part of a memory in mind in short sets while your attention moves side to side, until recalling it no longer triggers the same bodily reaction.
What happens in an EMDR session?
You stay seated and clothed. Early sessions cover history and preparation. A processing session targets one memory, runs short sets of bilateral stimulation with brief reporting between them, and closes deliberately with grounding, even if processing is unfinished.
Is EMDR effective for PTSD?
It is recommended for PTSD in NICE, WHO and APA guidance and has a large randomised-trial base, strongest in single-incident adult PTSD. For complex or repeated trauma the preparation phase usually needs to be much longer.
Do I have to describe the trauma in EMDR?
Not in detail. You identify an image, the belief it carries, the feeling and where you notice it in the body, then report briefly what comes up during the sets. Many people choose EMDR because it does not require a full account.
Can you do EMDR on yourself?
No. Self-administered bilateral stimulation is not EMDR and can open difficult material with nothing in place to close it. Bilateral sounds can be used for general settling, which is a different thing from processing a memory.
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