What Does EMDR Therapy Look Like?

Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy is a structured yet deeply compassionate process designed to help you heal from distressing memories, beliefs, or experiences that continue to affect you in the present.

While EMDR has a clear framework, each session with us is gentle, collaborative, and tailored to your unique pace and needs.

The EMDR 8 Phases — A Gentle Step-by-Step Journey

1. History & Treatment Planning

You’ll start by sharing what brings you to therapy, what feels stuck or distressing, and what you hope for.

Yvonne will help you identify key patterns or experiences that might be contributing to current symptoms. Together, you’ll create a plan that feels safe and empowering, with space to pause, adapt, or integrate IFS (Internal Family Systems) or attachment-informed work as needed.

2. Preparation & Resourcing

Before any trauma processing, Yvonne helps you build strong internal and external supports. You’ll learn grounding skills, ways to calm your nervous system, and visualise a calm or safe place you can return to anytime.

This phase helps your mind and body feel confident that you can safely explore difficult material without being overwhelmed.

3. Assessment

Here, you and Yvonne identify the target memory or experience to work on. You’ll notice the image, the emotions, the body sensations, and the negative belief that goes with it (for example, “I’m not safe” or “I’m powerless”).

You’ll also define the positive belief you’d rather hold (like “I am safe now”), so that EMDR can help your mind naturally shift toward it.

4. Desensitisation (Reprocessing)

This is the active reprocessing stage. Yvonne guides you through sets of bilateral stimulation (eye movements, taps, or tones) while you briefly notice the target memory.

As your working memory engages, the brain naturally re-organises the experience — the emotional charge softens, new insights arise, and the memory becomes more distant and less triggering.

It’s a bit like your brain re-filing a chaotic folder into the right place, without erasing the memory — just reducing its pain.

5. Installation

Here the focus shifts to strengthening the positive belief you want to hold about yourself. As the old distress fades, this step helps your new sense of safety, confidence, or self-worth become deeply integrated.

6. Body Scan

Yvonne gently guides you to notice your body sensations, to ensure your system feels calm, settled, and clear of residual distress.

It’s a way of confirming that your mind and body are fully aligned in this new way of experiencing the memory.

7. Closure

Every session ends with care and containment. Even if a memory hasn’t been fully processed, Yvonne ensures you feel grounded, oriented to the present, and equipped with self-soothing strategies to support integration between sessions.

8. Re-evaluation

At the beginning of your next session, you’ll reflect on any changes in emotion, body sensations, or perspective. The brain continues to process between sessions, and this phase ensures ongoing integration and stability.

What to Expect in a Reprocessing Session

Reprocessing sessions are not about talking through trauma in detail — instead, you’ll focus on what comes up in the moment as your brain does its natural healing work.

Most clients notice:

Shifts in body sensations — tension releasing, breathing deepening, or warmth replacing tightness.
Changes in emotions or images — the memory becoming less vivid or losing its emotional charge.
New insights or meaning — spontaneous understanding, compassion for younger selves, or a sense of closure.

You’re always in control. Yvonne checks in regularly, and you can pause anytime. Together, you’ll ensure every session ends feeling safe, calm, and connected.

Learn More about How to Prepare Your First EMDR Session

EMDR with a Relational Touch

Yvonne integrates EMDR with gentle IFS (Internal Family Systems) and attachment-informed strategies.

This means each “part” of you — the protective, critical, or hurting ones — is acknowledged and supported, creating a compassionate internal environment where healing can happen naturally.

Holding SpaceClinical Psychology Services