What is EMDR Therapy? An EMDR Therapist Breaks it Down
You know that feeling when something stressful happens?
Your shoulders tense, your stomach tightens, maybe your heart starts racing.
That's not just anxiety – that's your body having your back, trying to protect you.
And while traditional talk therapy is great for understanding why you feel this way, sometimes you need something that speaks directly to your body's stress response, especially if you are someone who has experienced trauma.
That's where EMDR comes in.
What Actually is EMDR Therapy?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy that helps your brain and body process overwhelming life experiences. EMDR works by helping your nervous system process and integrate experiences that may have been too overwhelming to process at the time they occurred.
While you focus on a specific memory and feeling associated with that memory, you engage in bilateral stimulation (follow a back-and-forth movement, tap either side of your body, or sometimes you hold small buzzers or listen to alternating tones).
Sounds a little strange, right?
But there's solid science behind why this works.
The therapeutic mechanism of EMDR is rooted in neurobiological research. The bilateral stimulation utilized in EMDR appears to activate neural mechanisms similar to those engaged during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep, a critical phase for memory consolidation and emotional processing.
Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that EMDR therapy facilitates communication between the limbic system (our emotional center) and the neocortex (our rational brain), enabling more adaptive memory processing and storage.
The World Health Organization and the American Psychological Association recognize EMDR as an effective treatment for trauma, backed by decades of research and clinical success.
Why Your Body Matters in Therapy
Here's something most people don't realize about trauma and stress – they're not just "all in your head."
When something overwhelming happens, your body acts like a guard dog, always on alert for danger. Long after the stressful event has passed, your nervous system might still be stuck in protection mode (you can read more about that here, here, here, here and here).
Traditional talk therapy works from the top down – starting with your thoughts to influence how you feel. EMDR works from both ends: it engages your thinking brain while also supporting your body renegotiate stored tension, stress and trauma responses.
Who Can EMDR Help?
While EMDR was originally developed for trauma, it can help with:
Anxiety that shows up in your body
Unexplained physical tension
Old emotional wounds that won't seem to heal
Nightmares and flashbacks
Feeling memories
Stress that feels "stuck" in your system
Sleep problems
Relationship patterns (attachment wounding) that you can't think your way out of
What to Expect: The 8 Phases of EMDR
If you're considering EMDR Therapy, it helps to know what you're getting into. While the internet often makes EMDR sounds like a therapeutic magic wand, it’s actually a protocol that takes time to work through. Will it take 12 sessions? Maybe! Will it take 25 sessions? Maybe! There’s truly no way of knowing how quickly one will move through the phases of the protocol until you and your therapist have time to get to know one another and begin to understand what makes you tick.
EMDR follows eight phases:
Phase 1: Getting to Know You
First, your therapist will want to understand your story. They'll ask about what brings you in and how stress shows up in your life. This helps them create a roadmap for your healing journey.
Phase 2: Building Your Toolkit
Before diving into the deep stuff, you'll learn some simple ways to calm your nervous system. Think of it like packing a first-aid kit for emotional stress. You'll practice these skills so you have them when you need them.
Phase 3: Mapping the Territory
Together, you and your therapist will identify specific memories or triggers that you want to work on. You'll also notice where you feel them in your body and what beliefs they've left you with.
Phase 4: Processing Time
This is where the eye movements (or other bilateral stimulation) come in. You'll focus on a memory while following your therapist's hand movements or other signals. Your job is just to notice what comes up – there's no "right" way to experience this.
Phase 5: Strengthening the Good
As negative beliefs start to shift, you'll work on strengthening new, more helpful ones. It's like building new neural pathways – the more you use them, the stronger they get.
Phase 6: Body Check
Your therapist will help you notice how your body feels about the memory now. Any leftover tension or discomfort becomes the focus of more processing.
Phase 7: Closing Time
Each session ends with making sure you feel stable and grounded. If processing isn't complete, your therapist will help you find a calm or containing place to "park" until next time.
Phase 8: Checking In
Periodically, you'll step back and see how things have changed. This helps track your progress and adjust the approach if needed.
Working with Both Brain and Body
One thing that makes EMDR different is how it combines two ways of healing:
Cognitive processing, which addresses how traumatic experiences have shaped one's self-perception, beliefs, and interpretations of events
Physiological processing, which facilitates the nervous system's shift from a state of hyper or hypoarousal to one of adaptive functioning, allowing the body to recognize present-moment safety."
Think of it like this: If you've ever tried to logically talk yourself out of being anxious, you know it doesn't always work. That's because anxiety lives in your body as much as your mind. EMDR can help you address both at once.
Finding the Right Fit
A solid EMDR therapist will:
Make you feel safe, heard and understood
Spend as much time as you needed to build a robust toolkit to cope with triggers and emotional overwhelm. There is no need to feel rushed.
Explain things in plain language
Listen to both your words and your body's signals
Go at a pace that feels right for you
We’re a group of EMDR Therapists in Horsham, Pa.
We want you to know that we believe that healing isn't just about understanding why you feel the way you do – it's about helping your whole system feel safe enough to change.
EMDR offers a path to healing that honors both your need to understand and your body's need to process and release.
Remember, your body's stress responses aren't broken – they're doing exactly what they were designed to do. Sometimes they just need a little help learning to relax again.
🧡,
Looking for EMDR Therapy Near Me?
Reclaim Therapy is a trauma therapy practice in Horsham, PA that provides EMDR Therapy in Horsham, PA and EMDR throughout the state of Pennsylvania. We also specialize in providing EMDR for Complex PTSD (CPTSD) and EMDR for eating disorders and body image. Ready to to get started?