Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is ideal for overcoming a multitude of trauma-induced problems. While it is commonly cited for treating PTSD, trauma, and other emotional distress issues, EMDR is also useful for treating mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, OCD, and addiction. Regardless of the reason you’re seeking EMDR therapy, here’s what you should know before going into your first EMDR session and how you can get the most out of it.
What is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR was developed in the late 1980s by psychologist and researcher Dr. Francine Shapiro as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While it’s still commonly used to help people recover from trauma, it can also be used as a mental health treatment for anxiety disorders, mood disorders, and more. This technique helps people reprocess and find healing from traumatic memories. During sessions, your therapist will guide you through bilateral stimulation techniques that may involve following a light bar with your eyes or using handheld buzzers or the use of headphones. When the EMDR treatment process is complete, you will be able to recall traumatic events without experiencing intense negative emotions or physical sensations.
How EMDR Works
EMDR therapy is based on the Adaptive Information Processing model, which says that the brain has a natural ability to process and heal from traumatic experiences. However, when a traumatic event occurs, the brain may not process the information correctly, leading to symptoms such as anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The goal of EMDR therapy is to help the brain process the traumatic experience correctly and thereby reducing the associated symptoms. This is achieved through a series of bilateral stimulation, which can be eye movements, taps, or sounds. The bilateral stimulation is believed to activate the brain’s natural healing process, allowing it to reprocess the traumatic experience correctly.
Bilateral Stimulation
Bilateral stimulation is a key component of EMDR therapy. It involves using alternating sensory input, such as eye movements, taps, or sounds to help you process traumatic memories or other negative experiences. Bilateral stimulation is thought to work by engaging both sides of the brain and promoting the integration of information. During the desensitization phase of EMDR therapy, your therapist will use bilateral stimulation to help you process the targeted memories. You may be asked to follow your therapist’s finger or a light bar with your eyes or listen to alternating sounds or feel taps on your hands. The goal of this phase is to help you process the targeted memories in a way that reduces their emotional intensity and promotes healing.
Phases of EMDR Therapy
EMDR therapy consists of eight phases, starting with a comprehensive assessment of your mental health history and symptoms. Your therapist will then work with you to identify the specific traumatic memories that need to be reprocessed. During the reprocessing phase, your therapist will guide you through the traumatic memory while providing bilateral stimulation. You’ll be asked to focus on different aspects of the memory, such as the emotions, sensations, and beliefs associated with it. The bilateral stimulation is believed to help the brain reprocess the memory correctly, thereby reducing the intensity of the associated emotions and sensations.
The eight phases of EMDR therapy are as follows:
- History Taking and Treatment Planning: In this initial phase, you and your therapist will discuss your history and develop a treatment plan that’s tailored to your specific needs.
- Preparation: During this phase, your therapist will teach you various coping techniques to help you manage any distress that may arise during the therapy sessions.
- Assessment: In this phase, your therapist will target specific memories or experiences that are causing distress and work with you to identify negative beliefs associated with those memories.
- Desensitization: This is the phase where the actual EMDR therapy takes place. Your therapist will use bilateral stimulation, such as eye movements, taps, or sounds to help you process the targeted memories.
- Installation: During this phase, your therapist will help you replace negative beliefs associated with the targeted memories with more positive ones.
- Body Scan: In this phase, your therapist will help you identify any residual tension or discomfort in your body and work with you to release it.
- Closure: Your therapist will use various techniques to help you feel grounded and safe before ending the session.
- Reevaluation: In the final phase, you and your therapist will evaluate the progress you’ve made and determine appropriate next steps.
What to Expect in Sessions
During your first session, your therapist will conduct an assessment to determine if EMDR therapy is the appropriate treatment for you. This assessment will include a review of your medical history, current symptoms, and any past trauma. Your therapist will also explain the eight phases of EMDR therapy in detail and how they’ll be used throughout your therapy sessions.
Once the assessment is complete, you and your therapist will develop a treatment plan that’s tailored to your specific needs and goals. This plan will include the specific issues that will be addressed and the goals of your therapy. Throughout the treatment process, you’ll work with your therapist to process past traumatic events using bilateral stimulation. Your therapist will guide you through the eight phases of EMDR therapy.
What to Expect After an EMDR Session
After an EMDR session, you can expect to feel physically and emotionally drained. If so, it’s important to set aside some time afterward for self-care and relaxation. As with any type of therapy, the results may not be immediate. It may take a few sessions before you start seeing significant changes in your thoughts and behaviors. Furthermore, you may experience some ups and downs as you continue with EMDR therapy. This is completely normal and expected, as processing traumatic memories can be a difficult and emotional experience. Your therapist will support you through these ups and downs and help you work through any challenges that may arise.
Additionally, after completing an EMDR session, it’s important to practice self-care and engage in activities that bring you comfort and relaxation. This can include exercise, spending time outdoors, or engaging in a hobby you enjoy. After completing EMDR therapy sessions, clients often experience a sense of relief and calmness. This immediate effect is typical and reflects the processing that occurred during the sessions. Many individuals find the distressing memories or triggers that once haunted them will feel less intense or vivid. The effects might be more subtle than you’d expect. Oftentimes, clients expect the experience of EMDR to be intense and the sense of completion to be an enormous sense of relief. The opposite is often the case—your mind can process the traumatic events of your past, and once complete, you find a gentle sense of neutrality towards the distressing event.
What to Expect After EMDR: Short-Term Effects
Directly after an EMDR therapy session, you can expect to feel a bit different than you would before your EMDR session. Many people feel completely fine after an EMDR session, but others may notice that they are experiencing some symptoms that may be uncomfortable. A good EMDR therapist will always help you to prepare for after session symptoms and help you to create a self-care plan to address any of these that you may experience.
Physical Sensations
The first category of symptoms that you may expect after EMDR are changes to your physical sensations or how your body feels. It’s common for people to feel tired and drained after an EMDR session. This is because even if you are sitting still during the session, EMDR requires a lot of mental and emotional energy. You may be exhausted, drained, or simply more tired than usual. I always recommend planning time to rest and recharge after an EMDR session – your body and brain will thank you!
Emotional Responses
It’s also common to expect emotional responses directly after your EMDR therapy session. This could include feelings of relief, freedom, and joy. It could also mean experiencing emotions like sadness, frustration, or worry. All of the above are normal and can be a healthy part of the trauma healing process.
EMDR works by helping you to experience the process of somatic, emotional, and psychological healing. Healing from trauma is not like flipping an on/off switch. Instead, EMDR assists your brain and body with moving through the emotions that were a part of your traumatic experience. That means that it’s really normal and even healthy to feel big emotions after your EMDR session. Give yourself space to feel these – it may be helpful to plan on journaling or doing creative work that helps you to feel your feelings after the session in order to help regulate your emotions. You may also choose to share your emotions of relief, joy, or peace with your loved ones and support system.
Cognitive Changes
One of the coolest parts of EMDR therapy is how it helps you to change the way you think about yourself, others, and the world. You can expect to have changes to your thoughts after an EMDR session. This might look like a new sense of clarity – “Oh that’s what really happened!” This may be accompanied by new information about what has occurred in the past. You may also have new perspectives, ideas, or insights into your past experiences and how they are impacting your present situation. You will likely notice that you are thinking about what happened in a new and different way.
What to Expect After EMDR: Long-Term Healing
The long-term healing phase post-EMDR involves deeper and sometimes more gradual changes over time. This is when you will really start to notice sustained healing and personal growth, especially if you are taking the steps to nurture and sustain your healing in between sessions.
Psychological and Emotional Growth
EMDR can lead to long-term improvements in your emotional regulation and psychological resilience. Because EMDR therapy helps your brain to correctly store past traumatic memories as long-term memories, most people who do EMDR will notice a change in how they react to psychological and emotional triggers. Instead of feeling aggravated or shut down by things that used to have a strong impact on you, you are more likely to feel calm, peaceful or accepting of things that may have triggered you in the past. This can lead to a reduction in symptoms of depression and anxiety overall as you build a stronger connection to inner peace and stability in your life.
Changes to Your Identity and Self-Perception
Using EMDR to help you resolve past traumas can often lead to a more positive self-image. Instead of carrying beliefs like “I am broken,” “I am not good enough,” or “I am worthless,” you will instead feel a strong connection to more adaptive positive beliefs like “I am okay as I am,” “I am good enough,” or “I am loved.” These changing beliefs are a hallmark of EMDR therapy and will greatly change the way that you perceive yourself.
You may also have a stronger sense of self and identity after EMDR therapy as you are able to more clearly understand who you are and what you care about outside of your trauma responses. You will likely rediscover some of your personal strengths (like resilience, compassion, patience, or courage) and develop a stronger connection to the version of you who is healed from trauma.
Changes to Relationships
Healing from past traumas is hard work that leads to many positive changes in your life. However, one of the areas of life that can feel most affected by trauma healing using EMDR is your relationships with others. It is common for EMDR clients to notice that it is easier for them to communicate in healthy ways, to set boundaries that help them meet their needs in relationships, and even choose healthier partners and friends. All of this is a result of less reactivity to triggers and a stronger sense of self combined with a connection to your positive qualities.
For some people, working through past traumas using EMDR therapy can also lead to changes to current relationships. If you are currently in unhealthy or toxic relationships (whether family, romantic or friendships) it is common to notice that there is more distance between you and these relationships than there was before EMDR therapy. This is likely because you are better able to communicate and set boundaries, which can actually lead to less contact in unhealthy relationships. While this may be a painful experience, it is important to remember that healing yourself means that your standard for relationships improves which can lead to changes in who you spend time with.
New Coping Skills
It’s common for individuals to develop better coping strategies and problem-solving skills after EMDR therapy. You may connect to memories of coping well with difficult events or discover new parts of yourself that are able to cope adaptively with life’s challenges. Additionally, you may find that you are less likely to experience re-traumatization after undergoing trauma therapy. This is because you are better able to recognize cues for danger than you may have been while your trauma was still very active. This means that not only will you find yourself better able to cope with stress, you will also be less likely to re-experience the same traumas you went through before.
How to Get the Most Out of Your EMDR Therapy Experience
Know that it’s okay to be nervous
Nerves are natural. The EMDR process can be daunting as it can uncover painful, uncomfortable memories. However, the process doesn’t start until you’re ready. Prior to the EMDR exercises, your therapist will equip you with a series of relaxation and coping strategies that ensure you are able to handle the emotional turbulence and ground yourself properly. You can rely on these safety measures established with the help of your therapist to get you through every step of the way. So, while the process does involve some emotional discomfort, know that you won’t be jumping into a draining emotional experience unless you and your therapist have determined it’s the right time to do so.
Be vulnerable and trust your therapist
The success of your EMDR sessions will largely rely on how willing you are to be vulnerable and open with your therapist. The sooner you are able to unearth the deeply hidden pains from your past, the quicker your therapist can guide you in healing from them. It’s also important to keep in mind that you are always in complete control of the process. At no point during EMDR will you be forced to do something you’re not comfortable with doing. Also, trusting your therapist and opening up to them will allow the healing process to be accelerated. Always remember that the EMDR process is designed to heal your past traumatic events and that your therapist is trained to guide you through it.
Develop healthy habits
Healthy habits such as exercising regularly, learning meditation, and practicing breathing exercises are all ways to effectively prepare yourself for EMDR. These are good tips in general that can also positively affect other areas of your life, too!
Next Steps: Talk to an EMDR Therapist Today
In summary, the journey through EMDR therapy is transformative and leads to significant changes in physical sensations, emotional responses, and the way you think about yourself, others, and the world. Immediately after your sessions it’s normal to feel a range of emotions (from joy to sadness to relief) as well as physical fatigue as your body and brain continue the reprocessing that started during your session.
In the days following your session, you may notice shifts in your emotions and thoughts or even the emergence of new memories. Leaning on your support system and prioritizing your self-care are especially important during this time.
In the long term, EMDR often leads to profound psychological and emotional change and growth. Your sense of identity and self may evolve and you will likely discover new ways to manage stress and the pain points of life through your therapy sessions.
Remember that EMDR therapy should always be done with a qualified and experienced therapist. When done right, it can be absolutely transformative