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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based psychotherapy approach developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. It helps alleviate psychological stress tied to traumatic memories. Major health organizations, including the American Psychological Association and the World Health Organization, recognize EMDR as an effective treatment for trauma.

EMDR is becoming increasingly popular because it offers relief without requiring detailed discussion of painful experiences. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR focuses on the brain's information processing system rather than just changing thoughts and beliefs. Through bilateral stimulation—typically eye movements—EMDR helps the brain reprocess "stuck" memories, reducing their emotional impact.

How Does EMDR Work? A Step-by-Step Breakdown

EMDR follows an eight-phase protocol designed to help people process and heal from painful experiences safely.

Step 1: History Taking and Treatment Planning

Before jumping into trauma work, your therapist takes time to understand you truly. This foundational phase isn’t just about gathering background information—it’s about building a roadmap for where the work will go.

In these first 1–2 sessions, your therapist will:

Explore your personal history, current symptoms, and key stressors

Identify specific target memories for processing—these can be major traumatic events or even smaller, repeated negative experiences that have built up over time.

Assess your readiness for EMDR (because jumping into trauma work too soon can be overwhelming)

Collaborate with you on clear, achievable treatment goals

This phase helps create a personalized plan that respects your pace and your needs.

Trauma processing takes courage—and preparation helps you build the tools to feel safe and grounded before doing the deeper work.

During this phase, your therapist focuses on:

Strengthening your sense of trust and safety within the therapeutic relationship

Teaching coping strategies like deep breathing, mindfulness, and self-soothing techniques to regulate emotional overwhelm

Practicing exercises like “safe place” visualization, where you mentally create a calming environment you can return to anytime you feel distressed.

Clients are taught coping skills so they feel prepared to address difficult memories during later phases.” Think of this phase as emotional strength training before starting the heavy lifting.

Once you feel ready, you and your therapist will choose a specific memory to work on. But it’s not just about recalling what happened—it’s about unpacking the deeper layers of how that memory impacts you.

Identify the negative belief attached to the memory (for example, “I’m not safe” or “I’m powerless”)

Define the positive belief you’d like to hold instead (like “I am safe now” or “I have control”)

Rate your current distress level using the SUD scale (Subjective Units of Distress)

Measure how true the positive belief feels using the VOC scale (Validity of Cognition)

Tune into any physical sensations that come up when thinking about the memory (because trauma often lives in the body, not just the mind)

This step helps create a clear, focused target for the reprocessing work ahead.

This is the heart of EMDR therapy—the active processing phase where the real healing starts to happen.

Bilateral stimulation begins, typically through guided eye movements, tapping, or auditory tones. This rhythmic left-right stimulation is key to how EMDR works.

While focusing on the chosen memory, you allow thoughts, feelings, images, and body sensations to surface naturally.

Your therapist helps you process these experiences in brief sets, checking in between each one.

The goal is to reduce the emotional charge of the memory, so trauma no longer triggers the same distressing response.

Once the emotional intensity around the memory has been reduced, the next step is to strengthen the positive belief you want to hold actively.

You focus on the new, adaptive belief (like “I am strong” or “I did the best I could”)

Bilateral stimulation continues as your brain works to link this positive belief to the memory

Your therapist helps reinforce the connection between the memory and the new, healthier self-perception

This phase helps replace old, painful narratives with ones that support your healing and sense of self-worth.

Trauma isn’t just in your head—it often gets stuck in your body. Even after emotional processing, some physical tension or discomfort might remain.

Check in with your body while holding both the memory and the positive belief in mind

Notice any lingering sensations like tightness, heaviness, or discomfort

Use bilateral stimulation to address and release any remaining physical distress

This step ensures that both your mind and body are fully included in the healing process.

Each EMDR session wraps up with a focus on returning to emotional balance, regardless of how intense the session may have been.

Guide you back to a sense of calm, often using relaxation exercises or your “safe place” visualization

Provide strategies for self-care between sessions, like journaling, grounding practices, or movement

Ensure that you leave the session feeling as stable and supported as possible

This phase is critical for maintaining emotional safety throughout your healing journey.

Healing isn’t always linear, and EMDR builds in regular check-ins to make sure the work is truly sticking.

At the start of each new session, you and your therapist will:

Revisit the memories you’ve already processed

Assess whether any distress has returned or if more processing is needed

Decide on the next steps—whether that’s targeting new memories or reinforcing the work you’ve already done

This phase honors the fact that trauma recovery is a process, not a one-and-done event.

EMDR was originally developed for PTSD and has substantial research support. The American Psychological Association considers EMDR "conditionally recommended" for treating PTSD, indicating strong evidence for its effectiveness with combat veterans, accident survivors, and victims of assault or natural disasters.

EMDR's phased approach makes it well-suited for addressing complex and childhood trauma. The therapy can carefully target early memories while maintaining safety, helping clients reduce emotional reactivity and improve self-image.

EMDR effectively treats various anxiety disorders by targeting the traumatic memories that fuel anxiety symptoms. Research shows promising results for general anxiety, panic attacks, and specific phobias.

When depression has roots in traumatic experiences, EMDR can help by processing underlying negative beliefs and painful memories, often resulting in significant mood improvement.

Emerging uses including addiction, eating disorders, and performance anxiety

Why Does EMDR Work? The Science Behind It

EMDR therapy works on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model—traumatic experiences can become "stuck," frozen in their original form along with all the emotions, sensations, and beliefs attached to them.

Your brain naturally processes and integrates life experiences. But trauma can overwhelm this system, activating the fight, flight, or freeze response. Instead of being filed away properly, these memories remain isolated in the amygdala (your brain's alarm system), causing symptoms like anxiety, flashbacks, or avoidance behaviors.

Three key brain regions are involved in trauma processing:

The prefrontal cortex (rational thinking center)

EMDR jumpstarts your brain's natural healing process. The bilateral stimulation works similar to what happens during REM sleep, allowing traumatic memories to be reprocessed and filed away more appropriately.

Several theories explain how bilateral stimulation helps:

REM sleep mimicry: Bilateral stimulation may mimic the eye movements in REM sleep, when the brain naturally processes emotional experiences.

Working memory taxation: When you track moving stimuli while recalling trauma, you tax your working memory, which reduces the vividness and emotional punch of traumatic memories over time.

Dual attention: Focusing simultaneously on the past (memory) and present (bilateral stimulation) helps the brain recognize the trauma is over.

There is usually an increased connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and limbic system after EMDR treatment, suggesting improved emotion regulation. 

What Does EMDR Feel Like? What to Expect Emotionally

EMDR offers a unique experience of dissolving emotional intensity without fully reliving trauma. During sessions, you might experience:

Waves of emotion that rise and fall naturally

Physical sensations like tingling, warmth, or tension release

Shifts in how memories appear (sometimes becoming more distant)

Spontaneous connections between current reactions and past experiences

Some clients describe EMDR as watching a movie of their experience rather than reliving it. Others notice the emotional charge dissolving while the factual memory remains intact.

Healing happens at your own pace. Your therapist will guide the process, but your brain does the healing work in its own unique way. The goal isn't to erase memories but to transform their impact on your present life.

Explore EMDR’s eight-step protocol—reprocess “stuck” memories with bilateral stimulation for lasting relief.

EMDR Therapy Explained: A Step-by-Step Guide to Healing Trauma

How Does EMDR Work?

EMDR Therapy for Depression and Anxiety: Understanding a New Path to Healing

For millions struggling with depression and anxiety, traditional treatments sometimes fall short. If conventional approaches haven't worked for you, EMDR therapy for depression and anxiety might offer a promising alternative.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy was originally developed for PTSD but has shown effectiveness for depression and anxiety, especially when they stem from trauma. EMDR focuses on how traumatic memories are stored and processed in the brain.

According to the EMDR Institute, this therapy can help "reframe negative beliefs, resolve unprocessed trauma and adverse experiences, improve energy and mood, and create a more positive understanding of the self and others."

The Cleveland Clinic reports that EMDR can be especially beneficial for depression stemming from traumatic experiences.

EMDR is an evidence-based psychotherapy developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. It's based on the Adaptive Information Processing model, which suggests psychological distress often results from unprocessed traumatic memories.

EMDR uniquely uses bilateral stimulation—typically through guided eye movements, alternating taps, or auditory tones—to facilitate communication between brain hemispheres, reducing the emotional intensity of traumatic memories.

EMDR follows an eight-phase approach that includes history taking and treatment planning, preparation with coping techniques, assessment of target memories, desensitization using bilateral stimulation, installation of positive beliefs, body scan to identify remaining tension, closure ensuring stability, and reevaluation in subsequent sessions.

Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR requires minimal detailed verbal recounting of traumas and often produces more rapid results.

How EMDR Therapy Helps with Depression and Anxiety

EMDR therapy for depression and anxiety addresses underlying traumatic memories fueling symptoms. Depression often stems from unprocessed traumas—both major traumas and "small-t traumas" like rejection or criticism.

Bilateral stimulation activates the brain's natural information processing system, allowing traumatic memories to be properly integrated. A 2022 study found 60% of depression patients achieved remission after EMDR treatment, with results maintained at 12-month follow-up. A 2024 meta-analysis found EMDR particularly effective for severe depression.

For anxiety, EMDR addresses the overactive fight-or-flight response by processing trauma that keeps the nervous system on high alert. A review of 24 randomized controlled trials found positive effects of EMDR for emotional trauma and adverse life experiences related to anxiety.

What a Personalized EMDR Treatment Plan Looks Like

An EMDR treatment plan begins with a comprehensive assessment of your symptoms, potential traumas, treatment history, and therapy goals.

During virtual sessions, your therapist will guide you through the eight-phase protocol using effective online bilateral stimulation techniques. Treatment plans evolve based on your progress, with some clients noticing improvements after just a few sessions.

What the Research Says About EMDR Therapy

For treatment-resistant depression, a study by Hase et al. (2018) found that adding EMDR to treatment as usual resulted in a 50% remission rate.

A 2024 meta-analysis of 25 randomized controlled trials found EMDR significantly reduced depression symptoms, particularly in severe cases.

For anxiety disorders, a review of 24 randomized controlled trials found positive effects, with one study showing decreased anxiety scores in pregnant women with stillbirth history after just a single session.

Research by Ostacoli et al. comparing EMDR to CBT for recurrent depression reported a 71% immediate remission rate in the EMDR group, with 54.8% maintaining remissions after six months.

EMDR may be beneficial if your symptoms connect to past trauma, you experience intrusive thoughts or memories, traditional talk therapy hasn't fully resolved your symptoms, you're dealing with treatment-resistant depression, you struggle with negative self-beliefs, or you're open to experiential approaches.

Consider EMDR alongside other treatments if you have severe depression with suicidal thoughts, co-occurring conditions, complex trauma, or dissociative symptoms.

EMDR therapy can relieve depressive symptoms by reframing negative beliefs connected to past experiences.

Sessions typically last 50 minutes following the eight-phase protocol. During processing, you might experience emotional shifts, insights, physical sensations, and rapid memory associations.

Between sessions, processing often continues with dream changes, new memories surfacing, and emotional fluctuations. Self-care between sessions is important.

Starting begins with an initial consultation to discuss your concerns, history, and goals. If appropriate, you'll be matched with an EMDR-certified therapist specializing in your concerns.

Virtual EMDR is equally effective as in-person treatment, according to research showing no significant differences in outcomes. Virtual accessibility makes it easier to maintain consistent treatment.

EMDR integrates well with medication management, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness practices, and lifestyle modifications.

For treatment-resistant depression, studies show promising results when adding EMDR to usual treatment, with one reporting a 50% remission rate in patients who hadn't responded to conventional treatments.

If traditional treatments haven’t provided the relief you need, EMDR therapy offers a powerful alternative by reshaping how the brain processes traumatic memories. The evidence is compelling—recent studies show significant reductions in depression symptoms, with one 2022 study reporting 60% of patients achieving remission, sustained even a year later.

With the right support, meaningful healing is possible. Your experiences are valid, your struggles are real, and a better path forward is within reach.

At Innerwell, we offer EMDR therapy guided by licensed professionals trained in trauma-informed care—delivered online for convenience, privacy, and consistency. Get matched with a therapist and take the next step toward long-term relief today.

EMDR’s bilateral stimulation reprocesses trauma memories to ease depression and anxiety symptoms, offering faster relief than traditional talk therapies.

EMDR Therapy for Depression & Anxiety: Trauma-Informed Relief

Healing Grief with EMDR: An Innovative Therapy for Lasting Peace

Grief can manifest in many forms—waves of sadness, surges of anger, feelings of guilt, physical fatigue, or sleepless nights. These reactions are a natural part of the grieving process.

However, for some people—approximately 7-10% of those grieving—grief becomes something more complicated, with intense symptoms that don't ease up and make daily life feel impossible.

Contrary to the idea of predictable, orderly stages, grief often follows a non-linear path. You may feel stable for a period, only to be overwhelmed again by a triggering event like an anniversary or birthday. When grief becomes stuck, it can impact both mind and body, keeping the nervous system in a heightened state of alert.

In such cases, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy offers a targeted approach to help process unresolved grief and support emotional healing.

Your brain physically changes when you're grieving. The emotional centers light up while the pleasure circuits dim down. When grief becomes complicated—now officially called Prolonged Grief Disorder in the diagnostic manual DSM-5-TR—you might experience persistent yearning, constant thoughts about your loved one, and a genuine inability to engage in everyday life.

Traditional talk therapy often falls short because grief lives in your emotions and body, not just your thoughts. Sometimes talking actually helps you avoid feeling the grief directly. Additionally, grief doesn't follow a predictable path that fits neatly into structured therapy approaches.

People get stuck in grief for many reasons: repeating the same thoughts over and over, pulling away from others, or suffering physical health consequences. Research published in Psychosomatic Medicine found something sobering—people who are grieving have a 21% higher risk of heart attack after their loss.

Even more concerning, a deep dive into the research published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology showed that traditional grief interventions only help modestly, with 30-50% of complicated grief cases showing little improvement with standard approaches.

EMDR isn't just another talking therapy. It follows eight specific steps:

History Taking: Your therapist gets to know you and your loss

Preparation: Learning skills to handle difficult emotions (think of it as building emotional muscles)

Assessment: Pinpointing specific memories that trigger grief responses

Desensitization: Processing painful memories while your attention moves back and forth (bilateral stimulation)

Installation: Replacing negative thoughts about never experiencing happiness again with more helpful beliefs

Body Scan: Finding and releasing where grief is stored in your body

Closure: Grounding yourself before leaving each session

Re-evaluation: Checking your progress over time

What makes EMDR different is the bilateral stimulation—your eyes might follow the therapist's fingers moving side to side, or you might hold small buzzers that alternate between your hands, or listen to tones that switch between ears. 

This back-and-forth stimulation seems to work in several ways: 

It mimics how your brain processes information during REM sleep

It divides your attention to reduce the emotional punch of memories

It activates the brain's information processing center (the thalamus) to help integrate fragmented memories.

Brain scans show EMDR creates real changes. Your amygdala (the brain's alarm system) calms down, your prefrontal cortex (the rational brain) becomes more active, and your hippocampus (memory center) helps file experiences properly. 

A study in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research found EMDR therapy showed faster improvement rates compared to standard grief therapy approaches.

The Potential Benefits of EMDR for Processing Grief

Harness EMDR’s eight-phase protocol to integrate painful memories safely, reduce triggers, and cultivate continuing bonds for enduring relief.

EMDR

How Does EMDR Work?

EMDR Therapy for Depression and Anxiety: Understanding a New Path to Healing

Healing Grief with EMDR: An Innovative Therapy for Lasting Peace

Understanding Trauma: A Journey Through the Brain and Beyond

What PTSD Really Feels Like—And How Healing Begins

Understanding Treatment-Resistant Depression: When the Usual Approaches Don't Stick

EMDR Therapy for Family Trauma: Understanding and Healing Generational Wounds