EDMR therapy is an eight-phase treatment and uses a unique approach where rhythmic eye movements—or other forms of bilateral stimulation—play a role during a segment of the therapy session.

Your therapist selects a specific troubling memory to address and will guide you to mentally engage with various elements of this memory. Simultaneously, you will follow the therapist’s hand with your eyes. This process, which a researcher at Harvard suggests is linked to the same biological mechanisms that operate during REM sleep, sparks a natural cascade of thought and emotion, allowing you to reprocess the memory and the associated feelings.

As therapy progresses, your distressing memories start to take on new, less traumatic meanings, fundamentally altering the emotional experience of the memory. For example, someone who has endured an assault may evolve from feeling overwhelmed by trauma to a strong self-affirmation of survival and resilience.

By the conclusion of EMDR therapy, individuals often discover they have not only reconciled with their past traumas but have also grown stronger through them.