EMDR Therapy: What It Is, How It Works, and Who It Helps
Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing — EMDR — has one of the strongest evidence bases of any trauma treatment. It is recommended by the WHO, the American Psychological Association, and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK. And it still frequently gets described, even by educated people, as "that weird eye thing."
It deserves a clearer explanation.
The Origin of EMDR
EMDR was developed by psychologist Francine Shapiro in 1987, when she noticed that disturbing thoughts seemed to reduce in intensity when she moved her eyes back and forth. Over the following decades, she and many other researchers developed and tested a structured protocol that has since been the subject of hundreds of clinical trials.
The therapy has evolved significantly from its origins and is now a complex, phase-based treatment — not simply eye movements.
How EMDR Works: The Adaptive Information Processing Model
The theoretical underpinning of EMDR is the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model. This proposes that the brain has a natural information-processing system that metabolises experience and stores it in an integrated, adaptive form.
Traumatic experiences can overwhelm this system, becoming stored in a "raw," unprocessed state — as if the memory is frozen in the moment of maximum distress, with all its original emotions, body sensations, and beliefs intact. These unprocessed memories are activated by reminders and produce the intrusive symptoms of PTSD.
EMDR is thought to stimulate the brain's natural processing system through bilateral stimulation — typically eye movements (following the therapist's finger) but also tapping or sounds — while the person holds the traumatic memory in mind. This allows the memory to be processed and integrated, reducing its emotional charge.
The Eight Phases of EMDR
EMDR is not improvised. It follows a structured protocol:
- History-taking: Understanding the client's history and identifying target memories.
- Preparation: Building coping resources and explaining the process.
- Assessment: Identifying the specific components of the target memory.
- Desensitisation: Processing the memory with bilateral stimulation.
- Installation: Strengthening positive beliefs.
- Body scan: Checking for remaining body tension.
- Closure: Ensuring stability at the end of each session.
- Reevaluation: Reviewing progress at the start of subsequent sessions.
Who Benefits
EMDR is effective for PTSD, complex trauma, specific phobias, grief, and anxiety disorders. Research is accumulating for its use in depression, chronic pain, and performance anxiety.
It is not appropriate for people who cannot achieve basic stabilisation or whose trauma is so pervasive that processing requires extensive preparation. A trained EMDR therapist will assess readiness carefully.
What It Feels Like
Most people find EMDR sessions strange at first and deeply effective thereafter. The processing can bring up unexpected material. Between sessions, the brain may continue processing — vivid dreams, new insights, shifts in how old memories feel.
It is not an easy process, but for many people it produces relief that talk therapy alone did not — a way of putting down a weight that had been carried for a very long time.