EMDR therapy is delivered through eight distinct phases, each designed to guide the client toward healing and resolution. Here's an overview of every stage you'll encounter in EMDR therapy:

1. History Taking and Assessment

The first stage involves gathering detailed information about a client's history, including their current symptoms, past traumas, and their therapy goals. This is a collaborative process where the therapist works to understand the client’s unique struggles, challenges, and needs.

During this stage, the therapist will also identify potential target memories or events that will form the basis for future EMDR sessions. It’s essential for the client to feel comfortable sharing as much (or as little) as they choose, so trust and rapport-building are prioritized.

Why This Stage Matters:

This step lays the foundation for all subsequent phases by ensuring the therapist has a full understanding of the client’s experiences and emotional health.

2. Preparation

Once the client’s history has been assessed, the preparation stage focuses on establishing a strong therapeutic relationship. The therapist explains how EMDR therapy works, what the client can expect during sessions, and answers any questions.

Clients are also taught coping and relaxation techniques—such as deep breathing exercises or visualization practices—that they can use to regulate any emotional distress that arises during therapy. This step ensures that clients feel empowered and confident to engage in the process.

Why This Stage Matters:

Preparation minimizes client anxiety and equips them with tools to feel safe throughout the therapy process.

3. Assessment (Target Identification)

During this phase, specific target memories are identified for processing. The therapist helps the client pinpoint distressing memories, related images, emotions, and physical sensations. They also identify any associated negative beliefs the client may hold about themselves because of those experiences (e.g., "I am powerless" or "I am unworthy").

The therapist will ask the client to assess the intensity of these memories using a Subjective Units of Distress (SUD) scale, rating emotional distress from 0 to 10.

Why This Stage Matters:

This stage ensures a highly personalized approach to therapy by focusing on what’s most distressing for the client, allowing for targeted treatment.

4. Desensitization

Desensitization is the core of EMDR therapy. During this phase, the therapist uses bilateral stimulation techniques, such as guiding the client’s eye movements back and forth, tapping, or auditory tones. These techniques serve to disrupt the client’s emotional response to the target memory.

During this process, clients may notice that their thoughts or feelings begin to change. These shifts can happen quickly or gradually, with the intensity of their distress decreasing over time. This stage is repeated until the memory no longer triggers significant emotional pain.

Why This Stage Matters:

This phase helps desensitize painful memories so they lose their emotional intensity, allowing clients to gain relief and clarity.

5. Installation of Positive Beliefs

Following desensitization, the therapist and client work to replace the previously identified negative beliefs with positive and empowering ones. For example, "I am powerless" might be reframed to "I am in control."

The therapist uses bilateral stimulation to “install” this new belief until it feels fully integrated and authentic to the client.

Why This Stage Matters:

This stage helps clients internalize healthier, kinder self-beliefs, fostering self-empowerment and growth.

6. Body Scan

Memories often leave behind residual physical sensations, such as tension, tightness, or discomfort. The body scan phase asks clients to focus on these physical reactions while recalling the reprocessed memory. If any remaining tension persists, the therapist addresses these sensations with additional bilateral stimulation.

Why This Stage Matters:

This stage ensures that both the emotional and physical impacts of trauma are fully resolved, promoting mind-body harmony.

7. Closure

The closure phase is especially important if a memory isn't fully processed during a single session. Here, the therapist helps the client return to a state of calm, often revisiting the relaxation techniques introduced in the preparation stage.

This step ensures that clients leave each session feeling safe and in control. The therapist may also provide “homework,” like journaling or practicing coping strategies, to maintain emotional balance between sessions.

Why This Stage Matters:

Closure ensures clients leave therapy sessions feeling stable, even if the work is incomplete.

8. Reevaluation

The final stage focuses on evaluating progress. The therapist will revisit the target memory to confirm if it has been fully processed or if additional work is needed. The reevaluation phase also identifies whether the client has experienced new insights or changes overall since completing therapy.

If there are unresolved memories or related concerns, therapy can loop back to earlier stages to address them.

Why This Stage Matters:

Reevaluation ensures lasting results by addressing any lingering trauma and reflecting on the client's overall progress.

Unlike traditional therapies, EMDR directly targets the root causes of emotional distress, enabling clients to heal at a deeper level. It's highly effective for treating a range of conditions, including PTSD, anxiety, depression, and even phobias.

For many clients, breakthroughs happen quicker than anticipated—a testament to the power of this evidence-based approach.