Sometimes the unknown prevents us for seeking out a certain treatment.  I want to take some time to explain the different phases of EMDR therapy that your counselor will follow during this treatment.  I think it’s helpful to have a basic understanding of the process to help minimize anxiety and de-mystify the treatment.

EMDR is an 8-phase structured approach to psychotherapy that taps into the body’s natural healing processes. Here is a quick synopsis of the 8-phase protocol for EMDR therapy to give you a sense of what to expect:

Phase 1: History and Assessment

In this phase the counselor will explore your current stresses and triggers and ask you a series of questions to help uncover the history of them. The counselor is working to identify the targets that will be processed. Targets are specific event that are distressing or disturbing to you that are linked to your current life stresses and triggers.  

Phase 2: Preparation

In this stage your counselor will help you develop a toolbox of skills that help you regulate and manage difficult emotional experiences. You will learn tools to help stabilize when you are triggered from distressing memories or emotions.  Also, in this phase your counselor will explain EMDR therapy to you and answer any questions you have. 

EMDR Treatment Explanation

Here is a summary of what I tell clients who are in my office and EMDR therapy is the agreed upon treatment:

Often, when something traumatic happens, it seems to get locked in the nervous system with the original pictures, sounds, thoughts, feelings, and so on. Since the experience is locked in, it continues to be triggered whenever a reminder comes up. It can be the basis for a lot of discomfort and sometimes a lot of negative emotions, such as fear and helplessness that we cannot seem to control. These are really the emotions connected with the old experience that are being triggered. EMDR therapy uses bi-lateral stimulation through either eye-movement, tapping, tones, or buzzers to stimulates a sensory experience of going from left to right, diagonal, or side to side to unlock the nervous system and allow your brain to process the experience. It is similar to what is thought to happen in REM, or dream sleep. The bilateral stimulation is involved in processing the unconscious material. The important thing to remember it is your own brain that will be doing the healing and that you are the one in control.

Phases 3-6: Where the Deep Work Happens

Your counselor will have made a target sequence plan for the targets identified in phase 1 based on training she/he has to help each target process the best. With your counselors support you will start with the first target and identify the image, negative beliefs about yourself, physical sensations, and the emotions associated with this memory. You will also identify the thoughts you’d prefer to believe about yourself. The counselor will help you connect with the targeted memory, and will then use sets of bi-lateral stimulation. Bi-lateral stimulation can either be eye-movement, tapping, tones, or buzzers that stimulate a sensory experience of going from left to right, diagonal, or side to side. This bi-lateral stimulation mimics a similar process that happens during REM (rapid eye-movement) sleep, which is a period of sleep where processing typically occurs.

The beautiful thing about EMDR is that this processing is happening while you’re awake and in control. In a sense, you have one foot in the past and one foot in the present while the brain is processing the disturbing material. Remember you brain will do the work and you will just be ‘noticing’ the material as it is processing.  

Phase 7: Closing a Session

The counselor closes each session by reminding you that processing may continue for up to 72 hours and you may experience new insights, dreams or material connected to the processing and to keep a log of any new material that pops up.  Then you will be guided through one of the tools you learned in phase 2 to transition to a calm state.     

Phase 8: Re-Evaluation

This is when you come back for the following session and will recheck the target from the previous session to determine if the target is fully processed or still needs more work.  How do we know a target is finished? It’s when you no longer report disturbance, and feel connected to a positive belief about self when recalling events, and have no uncomfortable physical sensations when thinking about a memory. 

I hope this helps give a little bit more insight into the process of EMDR therapy and helps support your decision in seeking out this treatment.