“And the trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”

-Erica Jong

What is EMDR Therapy?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is an integrative psychotherapy approach that has been extensively researched and proven effective for the treatment of trauma.

EMDR therapy a form of psychotherapy that helps people to heal from their emotional distress that often result from disturbing life experiences, or traumas. And it’s highly effective too! According to EMDR Institute, “Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference.”

8 Phases of Treatment

• Phase 1: History and Treatment Planning

This phase generally takes 1-2 sessions at the beginning of therapy and can continue throughout therapy. During this phase, your therapist will take a thorough history and develop a treatment plan. You will discuss specific problems and the symptoms you’re experiencing because of them. With this information gathered, your therapist will develop a tailored treatment plan and identify target memories. These targets include the event(s) from the past that created the problem, the present situations that are causing you distress, and the skills you’ll need to develop in the future.

While some clients feel comfortable sharing specific details about their previous trauma, but not everyone does. That’s OK! EMDR doesn’t require trauma survivors to delve into their trauma story. Your therapist will ask something like, “What event do you remember that made you feel unsafe and afraid?” The client may answer, “It was something that happened with my father.” That’s all the information your therapist will need to identify the target memory.

• Phase 2: Preparation

Preparing for EMDR is one of the most important phases of therapy. Generally, the goal is to establish a relationship of trust and support between you and your therapist. This can take anywhere between  1-4 sessions. During preparation, your therapist will help to create safety by teaching you specific techniques. This is helpful so you can rapidly deal with any emotional disturbance that may arise. Your therapist will teach you relaxation techniques for calming and grounding. Once safety is established, you can generally move onto the next phase.

• Phase 3: Assessment

During the Assessment phase, you therapist is begin “processing” the target events or memories. Now, processing doesn’t mean talking in depth about the event. Your therapist will help you identify specific aspects of the target memory to be processed. You’ll choose an image or scene from the target event that best represents the memory. Then you’ll choose a statement that expresses a negative self-belief. The belief is associated with the event (even if you rationally know it is false). The negative statement should be in the form of an “I statement.” Like, “I am worthless, I am not safe, I cannot handle this.” It’s how you feel when you focus on the image or scene. Next, your therapist will ask you, “What would you rather feel about yourself?” This is typically the opposite of your previous statement, but it can vary. For those that said, “I am worthless,” might reply, “I am worthy of love.” Your therapist will ask you to identify how true the positive statement feels using the Validity of Cognition (VOC) scale (1-7), where 1 is completely false and 7 is completely true. Nest, you’ll be asked to identify the emotions associated with the event and where you feel it in your body. Lastly, you’ll be asked to rate how disturbing it is to you on a Subjective Units of Distress (SUD) scale (0-10), where 0 is neutral and 10 is the most disturbing you can imagine.

For a single trauma, reprocessing can generally be accomplished within 3 sessions. If it takes longer, you should see marked improvements along the way.

• Phase 4: Desensitization

Lights, taps, and tones, OH MY! Your therapist is use bilateral stimulation (BLS), the back-and-forth eye movements, sounds, or tactile sensations during this phase. BLS helps the right and left hemispheres to process the traumatic material and activate the brain’s Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) system.  This phase focuses on any disturbing emotions and sensations as they arise. You won’t actually talk to your therapist during this process; you’ll have a brief check in, and then go back to moving your eyes back and forth. Throughout this phase, you’ll be asked, “what do you notice now?” When the AIP system is activated, your brain will recycle the previously “stuck” material for your nervous system to process/release it.

• Phase 5: Installation

Once the target memories and associations are processed, you therapist will move to install your positive cognition, or positive belief you’d rather feel about yourself. Your therapist will check in with you to ask if the previously stated positive cognition is still appropriate of if something else fits better. It often does because you are moving towards healing. Again, your therapist will ask you how true it feels on the same VOC scale. BLS is again used to help identify any barriers that keep you from believing the positive cognition.

• Phase 6: Body Scan

Just as the name suggests, you’ll be asked to do a mental scan of your body and “just notice” where you feel any tension or sensation in your body. This signals that something is “stuck” and still needs to be processed. BLS will be used to worth though the sensations.

• Phase 7: Closure

This will look and sound different depending on your session. Sometimes you will be able to complete a target memory by the end of your therapy session, other times you’ll need to continue at your next appointment. Your therapist can take you back to your safe/calm place or use a container exercise when material hasn’t fully been processed. These techniques are safety measures for you.

• Phase 8: Reevaluation

Though it looks like the last step, the reevaluation phase is introduced at the beginning of each therapy session once processing has started. Your EMDR therapist will do a check-in to see if you’re experienced any new insights, thoughts, emotions, feelings or dreams since your last meeting. Before diving back into processing, your therapist will check to evaluate your SUD level and if your positive cognition are still true to you. If the previous session was incomplete, the cycle begins again at phase 4.

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Are you looking for an EMDR therapist? Visit this site to search for a therapist in your area that utilizes EMDR in their therapy.