8 Phases of EMDR: What Happens During Each Step

You’ve been dealing with flashbacks for months. Nightmares wake you up multiple times a week. Your therapist mentioned EMDR, and you googled it, which led to more questions than answers. Something about eye movements and reprocessing trauma? It sounds a bit strange, maybe even uncomfortable.

If you’re curious about EMDR but want to understand what you’re actually signing up for, this guide walks through each phase of the process. No fluff, no overselling. Just what happens and why.

What Is EMDR?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) was developed by psychologist Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. It’s primarily used for PTSD, but therapists also use it for anxiety, depression, phobias, and grief.

Here’s the basic idea: when you experience trauma, your brain sometimes can’t process the memory properly. It gets stuck, unprocessed, and keeps triggering you as if the threat is still present. EMDR helps your brain finally file that memory away so it stops hijacking your nervous system.

The distinctive element is bilateral stimulation, usually through guided eye movements (though some therapists use tapping or sounds instead). While you recall distressing memories, these bilateral movements help your brain reprocess what happened.

A comprehensive meta-analysis of 26 randomized controlled trials found that EMDR significantly reduced PTSD symptoms, depression, anxiety, and subjective distress with moderate to large effect sizes. The World Health Organization and American Psychological Association both recognize EMDR as an effective trauma treatment.

The goal isn’t to erase memories. It’s to change how those memories affect you now.

The Ultimate Goal of EMDR

EMDR aims to help you process unresolved traumatic memories so they no longer control your present life. When a memory is traumatic, it stays emotionally charged and can get triggered unpredictably. EMDR helps your brain complete the processing it couldn’t finish when the trauma occurred.

This isn’t just symptom reduction. It’s about freeing up the mental and emotional energy that’s been consumed by unprocessed trauma. When you’re not constantly managing triggers and flashbacks, you have more capacity for everything else in your life.

The Eight Phases of EMDR

EMDR follows an eight-phase protocol. These phases aren’t rigid boxes; they overlap, and your therapist will adjust the pace based on your needs. Some phases may require multiple sessions, whereas others occur quickly.

Phase 1: History-Taking and Treatment Planning

Your therapist needs to understand your history before jumping into memory reprocessing. This initial phase involves a thorough intake in which you discuss significant life events, current symptoms, and the reasons you are seeking therapy.

Your therapist will identify target memories to work on. These are experiences that still feel emotionally charged and contribute to your current distress. You’ll collaborate on which memories to address first, often starting with earlier experiences that laid the groundwork for later struggles.

This phase also involves explaining how EMDR works, what to expect, and answering questions. Building trust here matters because the deeper work requires feeling safe enough to access difficult memories.

Phase 2: Preparation

This phase is crucial, especially if you have complex trauma. Before reprocessing memories, you need tools to manage distress if it comes up during sessions.

Your therapist will teach you grounding techniques, self-regulation strategies, and ways to calm your nervous system. This might include breathing exercises, safe place visualization, or body-based techniques for managing anxiety.

The goal is to make sure you feel resourced enough to engage with difficult material without becoming overwhelmed. You’re building a toolkit so you know you can handle what comes up and return to feeling stable.

Phase 3: Assessment

Now you select a specific target memory from Phase 1. You’ll identify the most disturbing image from that memory and the negative belief you hold about yourself related to it. Common negative beliefs include “I’m helpless,” “I’m not safe,” or “I’m not good enough.”

You’ll also identify a positive belief you’d prefer to hold, like “I’m capable now” or “I survived and I’m safe.” Your therapist will ask you to rate how true that positive belief feels on a scale of 1 to 7.

You’ll also rate your current distress level for the memory on a 0 to 10 scale. These ratings give you a baseline to track progress.

Phase 4: Desensitization

This is what most people picture when they think of EMDR. You hold the disturbing image and negative belief in your mind while following your therapist’s hand movements with your eyes (or experiencing taps or sounds if you’re using those instead).

Each set of bilateral stimulation lasts 20-30 seconds, then your therapist pauses and asks what you notice. You might notice thoughts, feelings, body sensations, or new images arising. You don’t need to do anything with what comes up, just notice it.

The process repeats: bilateral stimulation, pause, notice what emerges, repeat. Over time, the intensity of the memory decreases. The emotional charge lessens. The negative belief begins to feel less true.

This continues until your distress rating reaches 0 or 1, indicating the memory no longer triggers significant distress.

Phase 5: Installation

Once the distress has decreased, you shift focus to strengthening the positive belief identified in Phase 3. You hold that desired positive belief in mind while doing more sets of bilateral stimulation.

The goal is “installing” this healthier perspective so it feels genuinely true, not just intellectually accurate. Your therapist will ask you to rate the validity of the positive belief again, aiming for a 6 or 7.

This ensures you’re not just removing the negative impact but actually integrating a more empowering way of seeing yourself.

Phase 6: Body Scan

Even after the emotional distress shifts, physical tension can linger. This phase addresses any residual body-based discomfort related to the processed memory.

You’ll mentally scan your body from head to toe, noticing any remaining tension, tightness, or unusual sensations. If you detect discomfort, you’ll do more bilateral stimulation until those physical sensations release.

This completes the processing at every level, not just cognitive and emotional, but somatic as well.

Phase 7: Closure

Whether the target memory was fully processed or not, each session ends with a deliberate closure phase. This isn’t rushing you out the door. It’s a careful transition back to your regular life.

If processing isn’t complete, your therapist will guide you on how to “contain” remaining material so you don’t feel flooded between sessions. You’ll use coping skills from Phase 2.

You might be encouraged to keep a journal, noting any insights or experiences between sessions. This ensures you leave feeling grounded and stable rather than emotionally raw.

Phase 8: Reevaluation

At the start of your next EMDR session, your therapist checks in about the memory processed last time. How does it feel now? Has the distress rating stayed low? Does the positive belief still feel strong?

This reevaluation confirms whether the healing is holding or if additional processing is needed. If distress has returned or the positive belief has weakened, it indicates more work might be necessary on that memory or related material.

This phase keeps treatment responsive to your actual experience rather than assuming processing is permanent after one session.

Is EMDR Right for You?

EMDR works well for many people struggling with PTSD, anxiety, depression, or other issues rooted in distressing life experiences. It often produces results faster than traditional talk therapy alone.

But it’s not for everyone. It requires a willingness to engage with challenging emotions in a structured way, and it works best when you have adequate coping skills and life stability.

The best way to know if EMDR fits your situation is to consult with a trained EMDR therapist who can assess your needs and answer specific questions about your circumstances.

If you’re dealing with symptoms from unprocessed trauma and traditional therapy hasn’t been enough, EMDR might offer the breakthrough you need. At Firefly Therapy Austin, our EMDR-trained therapists provide both in-person and online sessions throughout Texas. Ready to explore whether EMDR could help? We’re here to answer questions and support you through the process.