EMDR: Take the first step to relief and life control
For many people, EMDR leads to meaningful relief more quickly and more completely than traditional talk therapy. Instead of spending months revisiting the same struggles, EMDR helps your brain process and release what’s stuck, often in a shorter period. Some clients choose intensive EMDR sessions, where several longer sessions are scheduled over one or two weeks. This approach can help reduce distress rapidly, ease triggers, and restore emotional balance sooner, allowing you to return to daily life feeling lighter, clearer, and more in control. While traditional therapy often involves 50-minute sessions spread over many months, EMDR offers a different path, one that is intentional, structured, and focused on results. The goal is not just coping, but true healing.
Adaptive Information Processing (AIP): How EMDR Heals Trauma
EMDR therapy is based on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model, a theory developed by Francine Shapiro, PhD, that explains how the brain stores and heals memories. Under normal circumstances, the brain processes experiences smoothly, linking them to other memories and making sense of them over time. But when something overwhelming or traumatic happens, this natural process can break down. The brain may not fully process the event, and the memory becomes “stuck” in its original form, along with the emotions, body sensations, and beliefs that came with it. Trauma memories are often stored without context or language, leaving the brain unable to recognize that the danger is over. It’s as if the mind has a wound that never fully healed. As a result, current experiences can easily trigger old reactions, even when the present moment is safe. This can happen with both conscious and suppressed or hard-to-remember memories. The brain tries to protect itself by pushing painful experiences to the side, but the unprocessed material continues to influence emotions, thoughts, and behaviors.
Sights, sounds, smells, or sensations that resemble a past traumatic event can activate these unprocessed memories. When this happens, the body reacts as if the event is happening again, leading to intense fear, anxiety, anger, panic, or shutdown. This is why people with trauma may experience flashbacks, emotional flooding, or strong reactions that seem to come “out of nowhere.” The brain is responding to the past as if it’s still happening.
EMDR therapy helps the brain reprocess these stuck memories so they can be stored in a healthy, adaptive way. During EMDR, you briefly access the memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation (such as eye movements, tapping, or tones), which activates both sides of the brain. This allows the brain to complete the natural healing process that was interrupted by the trauma. Over time, the memory becomes less distressing, the emotional charge fades, and the body no longer reacts as if the danger is present. You can still remember what happened, but it no longer feels like you’re reliving it. EMDR therapy follows eight structured phases that unfold over multiple sessions. Sessions usually last 60–90 minutes, and many people experience meaningful relief in fewer sessions than with traditional talk therapy.
- History & Treatment Planning – Identifying goals and target memories
- Preparation – Learning grounding and regulation tools
- Assessment – Identifying negative and positive beliefs linked to memories
- Desensitization – Reprocessing the memory with bilateral stimulation
- Installation – Strengthening positive beliefs
- Body Scan – Releasing remaining physical tension
- Closure – Stabilizing before the session ends
- Reevaluation – Reviewing progress and planning next steps
- Requires less homework
- Involves less verbal retelling of trauma
- Reduces emotional intensity and triggers
- Helps the brain heal naturally
- Most effective for trauma-related issues
- Less helpful for conditions without a trauma component
- Continued research is ongoing to understand long-term outcomes