Source: EMDR Institute 2025
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that enables people to heal from the symptoms and emotional distress that are the result of disturbing life experiences. 

Repeated studies show that by using EMDR therapy people can experience the benefits of
psychotherapy that once took years to make a difference. It is widely assumed that severe emotional pain requires a long time to heal. EMDR therapy shows that the mind can in fact heal from psychological trauma much as the body recovers from physical trauma. When you cut your hand, your body works to close the wound. If a foreign object or repeated injury irritates the wound, it festers and causes pain. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.

EMDR therapy demonstrates that a similar sequence of events occurs with mental processes. The brain’s information processing system naturally moves toward mental health. If the system is blocked or imbalanced by the impact of a disturbing event, the emotional wound festers and can cause intense suffering. Once the block is removed, healing resumes.

Using the detailed protocols and procedures learned in EMDR therapy training sessions, clinicians help clients activate their natural healing processes. Eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) are used during one part of the session. After the clinician has determined which memory to target first, he asks the client to hold different aspects of that event or thought in mind and to use his eyes to track the therapist’s hand as it moves back and forth across the client’s field of vision. As this happens, for reasons believed by a Harvard researcher to be connected with the biological mechanisms involved in Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, internal associations arise, and the clients begin to process the memory and disturbing feelings.

In successful EMDR therapy, the meaning of painful events is transformed on an emotional level. For instance, a rape victim shifts from feeling horror and self-disgust to holding the firm belief that, “I survived it and I am strong.” Unlike talk therapy, the insights clients gain in EMDR therapy result not so much from clinician interpretation, but from the client’s own accelerated intellectual and emotional processes. The net effect is that clients conclude EMDR therapy feeling empowered by the very experiences that once debased them. Their wounds have not just closed, they have transformed. As a natural outcome of the EMDR therapeutic process, the clients’ thoughts, feelings and behavior are all robust indicators of emotional health and resolution—all without speaking in detail or doing homework used in other therapies.

How does it work?
Phase 1–2: Preparation & Stabilisation
We begin by creating a foundation of emotional safety. You’ll learn tools like breathwork, grounding, and self-soothing, and build insight into how your current symptoms are connected to past experiences.
Phases 3–5: Assessment, Desensitisation & Bilateral Stimulation
Together, we identify a distressing memory linked to what you’re struggling with today. You’ll explore the image, beliefs (“I’m powerless”), emotions, and body sensations attached to it. Bilateral stimulation (BLS)—such as eye movements or tapping—is used to gently reduce the emotional charge, making space for new, more adaptive beliefs (e.g., “I did my best” or “I’m safe now”).

Phases 6–8: Installation, Body Scan, & Integration
As the memory shifts, we strengthen helpful beliefs and check how your body is holding the change. The goal isn’t to erase the past—it’s to help you remember it without reliving it. You might find yourself thinking: “It happened, but it’s not happening now.”

How Can EMDR Help?
While EMDR is most widely used for PTSD and trauma, many therapists and clients report relief
across a broader range of concerns:
Anxiety, panic and phobic responses
Low selfesteem, shame, or imposter syndrome
Performance anxiety (even stage fright— as recently shared by singer Miley Cyrus who engaged in EMDR for this reason) 
Grief, loss, or relational wounds
Emotional triggers tied to identity, worth, or belonging

Sometimes it’s not one traumatic event, but the build-up of many small, dismissive, or hurtful moments that keep us stuck. EMDR can help unstick what’s lodged in the nervous system—often without needing to go into every detail out loud.

Why undertake EMDR?
If talk therapy alone hasn’t shifted things, EMDR offers a more embodied path to healing.
If you’re hesitant about revisiting painful memories, EMDR is paced to your tolerance, and often requires less verbal detail.
If you’re curious but sceptical, know that EMDR is backed by clinical research, meta-analyses, and a growing base of neuroscience—though like many good therapies, the specifics of “why it works” are
still being studied.

Is EMDR Right for Me?
EMDR is most effective when delivered by a therapist who:
– Is fully trained in EMDR
– Works within a safe, relational therapeutic alliance
– Integrates EMDR with emotional awareness, stabilization skills, stepbystep pacing and other evidence-based approaches

It’s not for everyone, and it shouldn’t be used without clinical support. But for many—especially those whose distress feels stuck, repetitive, or physiologically activated—EMDR may support healing to emerge when the memory is held, paired with bilateral stimulation, rather than
bypassed or intellectualised.