EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a psychotherapy that helps individuals process traumatic memories. It involves focusing on distressing memories while experiencing bilateral stimulation, typically through eye movements. EMDR aims to reduce the emotional impact of traumatic experiences, promoting healing and adaptive coping strategies for various mental health issues, including PTSD.
Developed by Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s, EMDR has become a widely recognized treatment for trauma and other distressing life experiences. At Crown Counseling, our EMDR therapists are EMDRIA-trained and stay current with the latest research and techniques.
This may be a good fit if…
- ✓A specific memory still hijacks the present: a flashback, a smell, a sound that drops you back into it
- ✓You can explain what happened calmly and still feel it in your body
- ✓Talking about the event in detail has not moved it
- ✓You avoid places, people, or conversations to keep the memory at bay
- ✓You want a structured protocol with a clear end point rather than open-ended talk therapy
Key benefits
You do not have to narrate the worst of it
EMDR asks you to hold the memory in mind, not to describe it in detail. For people who have found retelling unbearable, or who have already told the story many times without relief, that difference is often what makes treatment possible at all.
It works on the body, not only the account
Trauma tends to be stored as sensation and reaction rather than as an ordered story. Bilateral stimulation engages both while the memory is active, which is why clients frequently report the charge draining out of a memory before they can explain why.
It has an ending
The eight phases give the work a shape. You and your therapist agree on the targets, work through them, and check whether the distress has actually come down. That is a different experience from therapy that continues indefinitely.
Strong evidence behind it
EMDR is recommended for PTSD by the World Health Organization, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the American Psychological Association. It is not an alternative therapy; it is a first-line trauma treatment.
How EMDR works
How EMDR Reprocesses a Stuck Memory
Bilateral stimulation helps the brain finish what it couldn't at the time of the event.
The memory was stored with raw emotion, body sensations, and beliefs intact: frozen, easily triggered.
Eye movements, taps, or tones activate both brain hemispheres while you briefly hold the memory in mind.
The memory is integrated as an event that happened. You remember it, but it no longer hijacks the present.
Bilateral stimulation, visualized
The 8-Phase EMDR Protocol
A structured roadmap. We don't skip phases, and preparation always comes before reprocessing.
- 1
History
Treatment planning
- 2
Preparation
Stabilization & resourcing
- 3
Assessment
Target memory selected
- 4
Desensitization
Bilateral stimulation
- 5
Installation
Strengthen positive belief
- 6
Body Scan
Clear residual tension
- 7
Closure
Return to baseline
- 8
Re-evaluation
Check & next target
How we run EMDR at Crown Counseling
Every EMDR clinician here is EMDRIA-trained, and none of them will start reprocessing in a first session. Preparation comes first: we make sure you have a way to get yourself down from a spike in distress before we deliberately raise one. That usually takes one to three sessions, longer if the trauma is early or repeated.
- A full history, so we target the right memory rather than the loudest one
- Resourcing and grounding skills you can use outside the room
- Reprocessing only once you can reliably return to baseline
- Re-evaluation at the start of each session to check what held
When we slow it down
Complex or developmental trauma, dissociation, active substance use, or an unstable living situation all call for a longer preparation phase. Some clients spend months building stability before a single set of eye movements. That is not a delay in the work, it is the work; reprocessing without a foundation tends to flood people and set them back.
What to expect
EMDR therapy follows a structured eight-phase approach: history-taking, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation of positive beliefs, body scan, closure, and re-evaluation. During bilateral stimulation, you focus on the memory while following the therapist’s fingers moving back and forth across your field of vision; hand taps or auditory tones may also be used. Some clients experience positive results after just three sessions, while others may require several.
- 1
A first session of history and screening, not reprocessing
- 2
One to three preparation sessions building grounding and resourcing skills
- 3
Agreeing a target memory, the belief attached to it, and a distress rating out of ten
- 4
Short sets of bilateral stimulation, eye movements, taps, or tones, with a pause after each to report what came up
- 5
Closure at the end of every session so you leave settled, whether or not the memory is finished
- 6
Re-checking the target at the next session to see what actually shifted
Ready to start?
Tell us a little about yourself and we will match you with a clinician trained in EMDR.
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