EMDR Unpacked
There are Eight Phases of EMDR Therapy.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a structured, evidence-based therapy that helps the brain process and heal from distressing experiences. Rather than simply talking about problems, EMDR helps the brain digest experiences that may have become “stuck” and continue to affect emotions, thoughts, behaviours, and relationships.
The process takes place over eight carefully designed phases, helping you feel safe, supported, and in control throughout your therapy journey.
Phase 1: Getting to Know Your Story
Your therapist takes time to understand your history, current challenges, strengths, and goals for therapy.
Together, you’ll identify the experiences, memories, beliefs, or situations that may be contributing to your difficulties and create a treatment plan tailored to your needs.
The goal: To understand what is causing distress and create a clear path forward.
Phase 2: Preparation and Building Resources
Before any trauma processing begins, your therapist helps you develop skills to feel calm, grounded, and emotionally supported.
You may learn relaxation techniques, mindfulness skills, visualisation exercises, or other strategies to help you manage difficult emotions both inside and outside of therapy.
The goal: To help you feel safe, confident, and prepared for the work ahead.
Phase 3: Identifying the Target Memory
Together, you select a specific memory, situation, or issue to work on.
Your therapist will help you identify:
The image or memory that feels most disturbing
The negative belief connected to it
The positive belief you would rather hold
The emotions and body sensations associated with the experience
The goal: To clearly identify what needs healing.
Phase 4: Reprocessing the Memory
This is the phase most people associate with EMDR.
While briefly focusing on aspects of the memory, you follow bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, tapping, or alternating sounds. This helps the brain process information naturally.
Many people find that memories become less emotionally intense and that new insights, perspectives, and understandings emerge.
The goal: To help the brain process experiences that have become stuck.
Phase 5: Strengthening Positive Beliefs
As distress decreases, attention shifts to strengthening a healthier and more adaptive belief about yourself. For example:
Instead of:
“I’m not good enough.”
You may begin to genuinely feel:
“I am capable and worthy.”
The goal: To build confidence, resilience, and self-belief.
Phase 6: Checking the Body
Trauma and stress are often stored not only in our thoughts and emotions, but also in our bodies.
Your therapist will help you notice whether any tension, discomfort, or distress remains when thinking about the memory.
If needed, additional processing is completed until the body feels calmer.
The goal: To support healing on both an emotional and physical level.
Phase 7: Ending Each Session Safely
Every EMDR session concludes with techniques designed to help you feel grounded and settled before leaving.
Whether processing is complete or continuing, your therapist will ensure you have strategies to manage between sessions.
The goal: To help you leave therapy feeling safe and supported.
Phase 8: Reviewing Progress
At the beginning of future sessions, your therapist reviews how you have been feeling and assesses the progress you’ve made.
Together, you decide whether further work is needed on the same issue or whether it is time to move on to other goals.
The goal: To ensure lasting change and continued progress.
What Makes EMDR Different?
Many people find that EMDR helps them heal from difficult experiences without needing to repeatedly talk through every detail of what happened.
By helping the brain process and integrate distressing experiences, EMDR can reduce emotional distress, improve self-confidence, and create a greater sense of calm, freedom, and well-being.
EMDR is widely used to help people experiencing:
Trauma and PTSD
Anxiety and panic
Childhood adversity
Grief and loss
Low self-esteem
Phobias and fears
Stress and overwhelm
Distressing life experiences
Every person’s journey is unique, but the aim of EMDR is always the same: to help you move from simply surviving your past to feeling freer in your present and more hopeful about your future.