What does an EMDR Session look like?
Understanding what to expect from EMDR, Attachment-Informed EMDR, and EMDR 2.0
Many clients come to EMDR therapy feeling both hopeful and unsure—particularly if they’ve heard that the process doesn’t involve traditional talking therapy. It’s entirely natural to want to understand what actually happens in an EMDR session. The first session typically involves assessment, rapport building, and treatment planning to lay the groundwork for your EMDR journey. As a psychotherapist specialising in trauma, I offer the following guide to help you feel more informed, prepared, and reassured.
Initial sessions are focused on gathering your personal history and developing a treatment plan tailored to your needs. These early sessions help establish a sense of safety and clarify the targets for therapy. The therapist’s office is a safe and welcoming environment specifically designed for trauma therapy and to support your healing process.
Introduction to EMDR Therapy
EMDR therapy, or Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, is a powerful approach designed to help individuals recover from the effects of traumatic events, including post-traumatic stress disorder. Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR sessions follow a structured protocol that guides clients through the process of addressing and integrating traumatic memories. During a typical EMDR therapy session, the client focuses on a specific traumatic memory while engaging in bilateral stimulation—such as guided eye movements or gentle tapping. This unique combination helps the brain reprocess the traumatic memory, reducing its emotional disturbance and negative impact.
EMDR therapy involves eight distinct phases, each carefully designed to support the client in working through their traumatic experiences. These phases help the client develop coping skills, manage emotional distress, and gradually transform the way they relate to their past. By targeting the root of emotional pain, EMDR therapy offers a comprehensive path to healing and recovery.
The Structure of a Standard EMDR Session
EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, is an evidence-based trauma therapy that helps the brain process distressing memories so they no longer feel overwhelming. Developed by Francine Shapiro, EMDR treatment is structured around eight phases, beginning with the preparation phase. In a typical 60 to 90-minute session, you can expect the following:
During early sessions, the therapist will review the client’s history and focus on establishing safety and trust before moving into trauma processing.
1. Preparation and safety
In the preparation phase, your therapist will help you manage distress and develop coping skills by teaching stabilisation techniques—such as breathing exercises, grounding, and visual imagery. This phase is essential, especially if your history includes complex trauma or dissociation.
2. Identifying the target
Together, you’ll work with your therapist to identify a target memory, which may be a specific event such as a car accident, to focus on during EMDR. You’ll be asked to notice an image that represents the worst part, the negative cognition or negative belief you hold about yourself in relation to it (e.g. “I am not safe”), and where you feel this in your body. The therapist will also help you explore your personal history and any unresolved earlier experiences that may be connected to the target memory, ensuring that all relevant factors are considered when selecting targets for processing.
3. Bilateral stimulation
You’ll then follow a series of eye movements, tapping, or sounds—bilateral stimulation can also include the use of a light bar to guide rapid eye movement—while focusing on the memory. These techniques are core to how EMDR works, as they help facilitate the processing and integration of distressing memories. This activates both sides of the brain and supports the natural reprocessing of the distressing material. The aim is to reduce the level of disturbance—without needing to describe the memory in detail.
4. Reprocessing and integration
EMDR processing includes the desensitisation phase, where the emotional charge of the target memory is reduced through bilateral stimulation. After each set of eye movements or tapping, your therapist will ask, “What do you notice now?” You might experience a shift in emotion, thought, or body sensation. During this process, the therapist may guide you through a body scan to identify any residual body sensations, tension, or discomfort that remain after processing. If other memories or associations arise, these can also be addressed to facilitate comprehensive healing.
Positive cognition and positive self-statements are installed and strengthened, often using the Validity of Cognition (VOC) scale, to replace negative beliefs with positive beliefs and foster resilience. Over time, the memory typically becomes less intense, more distant, or takes on new meaning. The final phase involves reviewing progress, consolidating gains, and ensuring no unresolved issues or other memories remain before concluding therapy.
The Role of the Therapist
In EMDR therapy, the therapist plays a vital role in creating a safe and supportive environment where clients can explore and process their traumatic memories. An experienced EMDR therapist works collaboratively with the client to develop a personalised treatment plan, identifying which traumatic experiences and memories to target during sessions. Throughout the phases of EMDR therapy, the therapist guides the client step by step, helping them navigate difficult emotions and sensations that may arise.
The therapist also teaches coping skills, such as positive self-statements and body awareness techniques, to help the client manage distressing emotions and reduce negative sensations. By maintaining a non-judgemental and empathetic presence, the therapist fosters trust and security, allowing the client to engage fully in the therapy process. This supportive relationship is essential for helping clients move through the challenges of reprocessing therapy and achieve meaningful progress in their healing journey.
What It Feels Like
Many clients describe EMDR as intense, focused, and strangely efficient. It’s not uncommon to feel tired, emotionally stirred, or even relieved after a session. Because the work happens at the level of memory and body, it’s different to talking therapy—there is less discussion, and more noticing and processing. During or after a session, clients may notice upsetting memories or inappropriate emotions surfacing; this is a normal part of the process and can be addressed with your therapist.
It’s worth remembering: you remain in full control throughout. You can pause at any time, and your therapist will work with you to ensure the pace feels manageable.
How Attachment-Informed EMDR Is Different
Attachment-Informed EMDR is an adaptation of the standard protocol, tailored for those whose trauma stems not from single events but from early relationships—such as emotional neglect, inconsistent caregiving, or chronic misattunement.
As EMDR therapists and therapists trained in this approach, we often spend longer in the early phases of treatment to build relational safety and trust. Clients with insecure or disorganised attachment often benefit from resourcing practices that involve imaginal figures—such as picturing ‘all my friends’ forming a supportive presence, internal “safe parts,” or therapeutic visualisations that provide support and protection. This lays a stronger foundation for reprocessing.
In practice, Attachment-Informed EMDR weaves in more attention to how the therapeutic relationship itself becomes a vehicle for healing. We might slow the pace, return to safety more often, or integrate parts work (such as Internal Family Systems) to help make sense of the different ‘selves’ that show up in the room.
EMDR 2.0: A More Active, Accelerated Approach
EMDR 2.0 is a newer adaptation developed by Dutch psychologists Ad de Jongh and Suzy Matthijssen. It builds on the original EMDR model by deliberately increasing cognitive and emotional arousal during reprocessing to optimise working memory taxation.
Where standard EMDR allows memories to come and go naturally, EMDR 2.0 may involve more intensive dual tasks (like eye movements paired with counting or tracking objects) to enhance the brain’s ability to ‘unhook’ from distressing material. In later sessions and the next phases of EMDR 2.0, therapists may introduce advanced techniques or focus on planning for future sessions to address ongoing or emerging issues, ensuring that treatment targets are continually identified and progress is tracked.
It can be particularly effective for clients who experience:
- Very intense or intrusive trauma memories
- High levels of avoidance or emotional numbing
- Limited progress using standard EMDR
Importantly, EMDR 2.0 is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It requires careful clinical judgement and is best used when a client has strong coping resources and is psychologically stable enough to manage heightened arousal during sessions.
Which Version of EMDR is Right for Me?
That depends entirely on your history, symptoms, and what you feel ready to work with. A trauma that results from a single incident (such as an accident) may respond well to standard EMDR. EMDR is highly effective in treating PTSD, post-traumatic stress disorder, and related conditions. However, developmental trauma, repeated relational injury, or trauma embedded in shame and identity often requires a more attachment-informed or relationally attuned approach.
If sessions feel stuck or progress is slow, EMDR 2.0 may offer a more active and focused alternative. Trauma symptoms are generally caused by unresolved earlier experiences, so addressing these root causes is essential. As your therapist, I would always assess carefully and adapt the method to suit your individual needs.
Benefits of EMDR Sessions
EMDR sessions offer significant benefits for those struggling with PTSD symptoms and the lingering effects of traumatic experiences. One of the most notable advantages of EMDR therapy is its ability to bring about rapid and lasting reduction in distress, often in fewer sessions than traditional talk therapy. By directly targeting specific memories and using the brain’s natural healing process, EMDR therapy helps clients process traumatic memories in a way that feels empowering and manageable.
Clients often report a greater sense of control over their emotions and behaviours, as well as a reduction in negative emotions and sensations that once felt overwhelming. EMDR sessions can help restore balance and wellbeing, making it easier to move forward from the impact of trauma. For many, EMDR therapy is a transformative experience that not only addresses the symptoms of trauma but also supports long-term emotional resilience and improved quality of life.
Final Thoughts
An EMDR session is unlike any other therapeutic experience—it’s collaborative, structured, and deeply transformative. Whether using the standard model, an attachment-informed lens, or the EMDR 2.0 approach, the aim is the same: to help you process what was overwhelming, and allow your nervous system to return to a place of balance.
You do not need to relive every detail to heal. EMDR respects the body’s wisdom and follows your pace. With the right support and a skilled therapist, it can open the door to lasting change.
Looking for trauma therapy that fits your needs?
If you’re curious about EMDR, Attachment-Informed EMDR, or EMDR 2.0, I offer tailored therapy for adults experiencing trauma, anxiety, or emotional overwhelm. Get in touch today to explore what might work for your trauma to rebuild a sense of safety, trust, and hope, whether this approach could be right for you.
