Understanding the 8 Phases of EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is widely recognized as a valuable and effective tool in treating trauma. Within EMDR treatment, therapists work through eight unique phases with patients, intentionally leading them through the process toward healing.
But what are the eight phases of EMDR, and why is each phase so important? Keep reading to learn more.
What Is EMDR?
EMDR is a type of mental health treatment most often used with patients who have experienced trauma. A relatively new method, the first clinical trial studying EMDR took place in 1989, but the treatment was quickly seen to be effective, particularly for patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
When undergoing EMDR, patients move their eyes in a specific way, using side-to-side movements while processing traumatic memories. By doing this, patients are able to reprocess these memories, shifting where they are stored in the brain and allowing the patient to access the memory without feeling overwhelming fear, panic, or anxiety.
According to Victoria Ward, PsyD, this shift completely changes how a patient experiences a traumatic memory. “One way I describe it to clients is to think of a hot memory like touching a hot stove—painful, activating, hard to go near,” she says. “Through EMDR, we convert hot memories into cold ones. The memory doesn't disappear, but touching it stops burning. It becomes something you can look at without it having power over you.”
What Does EMDR Treat?
While EMDR is most frequently used in the treatment of PTSD, Ward says that research has shown it to be effective in treating a number of mental health struggles, including:
Panic disorders
Phobias
Body-based or behavioral symptoms of distress
Chronic pain
Depression
What Are the 8 Phases of EMDR?
EMDR is a structured therapeutic approach with eight distinct phases. Each phase plays a uniquely instrumental role in the healing process. If you’re curious about what EMDR therapy looks like, here’s what to expect.
1. History-Taking and Treatment Planning
In the first stage, a therapist works to understand a patient’s unique challenges and struggles. Through a thorough assessment, your therapist will explore your personal history, gaining a comprehensive overview of your story and identifying traumas that have occurred throughout your life. In this stage, your therapist’s goal is to understand your personal narrative and build a treatment plan based on your needs.
Ward says that the most important things taking place in this phase are trust and skill building. “EMDR asks a lot of the nervous system, so before we ever touch difficult material, we spend real time building safety together as well as building your toolbox with coping skills tailored to you.”
2. Preparation
In the preparation stage, patients learn about EMDR. Your therapist will explain the process thoroughly, explaining the goals and potential outcomes. They also will share regulation and relaxation techniques to help you feel equipped for the emotional challenges of processing complex trauma, and answer any questions you may have.
According to Ward, this is often the treatment phase that matters most. “Without the time it takes to build genuine trust and safety, the deeper work of EMDR simply can't happen—and it shouldn't be rushed. Trauma often occurs in conditions of danger and powerlessness; healing has to happen in the opposite conditions. This phase isn't a box to check before ‘the real work’—it is the real work, laying the foundation everything else stands on.”
3. Assessment
Next, your therapist will more specifically target the traumatic memory that you’ll be reprocessing together. Using what was shared in the History-Taking phase, your therapist will help you identify the specific traumas and associated negative beliefs that stem from them. This connects present symptoms with past experiences, helping you understand how trauma has affected other areas of your life.
4. Desensitization
Desensitization is when a patient begins to undergo the treatment itself. By focusing on the traumatic memory while experiencing bilateral stimulation through side-to-side eye movements and tapping, emotions, memories, and beliefs are able to be integrated in a more healthy manner.
“During desensitization—the heart of the process—one of the most important instructions is almost counterintuitive: let go, and trust the process,” says Ward. “Your mind may wander somewhere that feels unrelated to where we started—that's normal, and part of how the brain naturally connects and processes what needs healing. The key is to let whatever happens, happen, without trying to steer it.”
5. Installation
Next, your therapist will use bilateral stimulation to strengthen positive beliefs, thoughts, and mental associations. You’re not just trying to ease negative responses—you’re trying to build new, positive ones.
“By the time we reach installation, something shifts,” says Ward. “You start to see your story from a different vantage point, often with more compassion and context than you've ever had access to before. This is where beliefs like "I'm broken and unlovable" give way to something truer: "I survived something enormous, and I deserve love." This is the phase where people stop just surviving life and start thriving—reclaiming their capacity for joy, connection, and play.
6. Body Scan
Trauma can bring up very physical responses, so after undergoing reprocessing work, your therapist will ask you to do a body scan, assessing for any physical sensations or tension associated with the traumatic memory.
7. Closure
When working through such difficult memories and emotions, it’s important to be able to step back into daily life after your session without carrying the immense weight of all you’ve just unlocked. In the closure stage, your therapist will help you “contain” the work you’ve done until the next session, helping you stabilize, ground, and calm yourself as you transition out of your session.
8. Reevaluation
Before ending the session, you and your therapist will review your progress and identify any new traumas that may have emerged as a result of your processing. This ongoing dialogue is crucial to maintain a connected and collaborative therapeutic relationship to best support your healing and growth.
Does EMDR Work?
While each patient’s journey is different, EMDR has been shown to be highly effective for patients healing from trauma.
“I've watched people walk out of EMDR lighter—sometimes literally saying it feels like a weight has lifted,” says Ward. “Loved ones notice it too, telling them they seem ‘different... freer.’ Clients often report better sleep, less rumination, a reduction in nightmares and flashbacks, and less avoidance of the people, places, and situations that used to feel too triggering to face. That opens up a new way of engaging with life—building new relationships, strengthening existing ones, and returning to passions and hobbies without the weight trauma so often puts on them.”
“Maybe the most powerful benefit is building a new relationship with yourself and your own history. The shame and self-blame you thought you'd carry forever starts to loosen and fall away,” says Ward.
“One client had spent nearly twenty-five years believing they should have saved a sibling from a severe accident in childhood—convinced that if they'd just done something differently, the outcome would have been different. Through EMDR, they were finally able to feel what they'd always known intellectually: they'd done everything a child possibly could, and anything more might have cost them their own life too. Releasing that guilt didn't just ease their pain—it reopened their relationships and community in ways they hadn't experienced in decades. Where the old belief was "I don't deserve closeness—he didn't get to have his life, so what right do I have to enjoy mine?” the new one became "Living fully doesn't betray his memory—it honors it."
Experience the Freedom of Healing From Trauma
“EMDR isn't just about revisiting what happened — it's about rewriting your relationship to it,” says Ward. “Clients build genuine compassion for the moments they've spent years judging themselves for, and often gain something trauma takes away in the moment it happens: context—the ability to finally understand why things unfolded the way they did, not by minimizing what happened, but by finally seeing the whole picture.”
She also emphasizes that throughout the process of EMDR, patients are never without choice. “Trauma often strips away control in the moment it happens—EMDR gives it back. You decide the pace. You decide when we pause and when we continue. Emotions can move quickly and feel big in the moment, and that's exactly why your autonomy stays central the entire way through.”
Wondering if EMDR could be beneficial for you? At Aspire Psychology, our expert therapists would love to support you in your healing journey. Connect with us today to get started.
