What to Expect During Your First EMDR Therapy Sessions

If you're considering Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy, you're probably curious about what to expect. EMDR therapy is a powerful trauma therapy known for its effectiveness in helping people process upsetting memories. But EMDR can feel quite unusual, especially if you've never experienced it before. Here's what to expect in your first few EMDR sessions.

Understanding the EMDR Therapy Process

Before your first session, you should know EMDR therapy has eight distinct phases. Not all sessions involve bilateral stimulation, or BLS for short. In fact, you shouldn't be doing any BLS while thinking about upsetting memories for the first few sessions. The initial phases are often overlooked. But these first steps are crucial for comprehensive care.

Phase 1: History Collection

In your first session, your EMDR therapist should get a detailed understanding your history. She will ask you to tell a brief version of your life story, including traumatic events, mental health challenges, and related symptoms or triggers. This phase looks a lot like talk therapy where you and your EMDR therapist build rapport.

The Significance of History Collection in EMDR Therapy

History collection is an often underestimated phase in the EMDR therapy process. It serves as the foundation upon which the entire therapeutic journey is built. An EMDR therapist shouldn't just focus on the surface level of your experiences. Instead, they should aim to uncover the deeper layers of your life, emotions, and traumas. Here's why history collection is so crucial in EMDR therapy:

Comprehensive Understanding

One of the primary goals of history collection is to help your EMDR therapist gain a global understanding of your life. This involves exploring not only the traumatic events that may have led you to seek EMDR therapy but also your overall life experiences. Your EMDR therapist should know about important events, relationships, and emotional experiences. These can be good, bad, or neutral. They're all important. By understanding these experiences, your EMDR therapist can better understand your inner world.

Identifying Underlying Themes Before Trauma Therapy

The human experience is filled with interconnected events and themes. By thoroughly examining your history, your EMDR therapist can uncover underlying themes and patterns. These themes may not always be apparent to you, but can significantly influence your mental and emotional well-being.

Revealing Hidden Traumas

In some cases, people may not even be aware of all the traumatic events that have impacted them. By digging into your personal history, your EMDR therapist may unearth hidden traumas that have remained buried for years. These hidden traumas can be just as influential as more obvious ones in shaping your emotional responses and behaviors.

Please note this is not at all related to “discovered memory” therapy that was popularized and then largely discontinued some decades ago. EMDR therapists will not and should not suggest things have happened to you that you don’t remember. Also, at no time during EMDR therapy are you hypnotized or not in full control of yourself.

Tailoring Trauma Therapy

EMDR therapy needs to be highly individualized. Understanding your history is essential for your EMDR therapist to tailor the therapy to your unique needs. By identifying specific events, relationships, or themes, your EMDR therapist can address the root causes of your distress.

Building Trust and Rapport Before Trauma Therapy

Engaging in history collection fosters trust and rapport between you and your EMDR therapist. It provides an opportunity for you to share your life story, often revealing personal details you may not have told others. Trust is a critical component of the therapeutic relationship. Without it, you don't have a safe space to work through your trauma. But these things can’t be rushed. Be sure you move at a pace that is challenging but doable for you.

Recognizing Resilience and Strength

History collection is not just about identifying traumas. It's also an opportunity to recognize your resilience and strengths. By highlighting how you have coped and survived, your EMDR therapist can harness these strengths to support you on your healing journey.

History collection sets the stage for the next phases of EMDR therapy. It equips your EMDR therapist with a thorough understanding of your past, enabling them to guide the therapy effectively. By identifying traumas and recurring themes, they can help you better. With trust built, this phase ensures that EMDR therapy is focused on working effectively toward holistic healing.

Phase 2: Resourcing

This phase of EMDR therapy is incredibly important. After assessing your history, your EMDR therapist will guide you through the resourcing phase. This step involves identifying your strengths, support systems, and developing coping skills to help you manage the distressing emotions that may come up in later phases of EMDR therapy.

The Crucial Role of Resourcing in EMDR Therapy

The importance of thorough preparation for EMDR therapy cannot be emphasized enough. We've heard too many stories of people who've had negative EMDR experiences with EMDR therapists who rushed into trauma processing without building resources and coping tools. We understand that people want to feel better quickly, but you can't skip resourcing. Make sure your EMDR therapist spends time preparing you with resources.

Understanding the Significance of Resourcing

EMDR therapy can be emotionally intense. The process involves revisiting and processing traumatic memories. Understandably, it can stir up distressing emotions and memories. In fact, it won't work if you're not distressed. But there's a limit to how upset someone can be and still process well. Without resources and self-soothing techniques, you may become unable to effectively engage with the therapy. While EMDR therapy is designed to be challenging, you need to have the capacity to manage the intensity that may arise during sessions. Your EMDR therapist should help you build the skills to handle this discomfort and ensure your safety throughout the process.

Resourcing in EMDR Therapy: What to Expect

Resourcing is a highly personalized and important phase of EMDR therapy. It varies from person to person and should not be rushed. The goal is to provide you with the necessary tools and support to face the emotional challenges of EMDR therapy.

The resourcing phase may take a single session for some people, while others may require weeks or even months. There is no set timeline. The only guideline is the time it takes to ensure you have the resources you need to engage in the EMDR process.

During resourcing, your EMDR therapist will work with you to identify the strategies and techniques that work best for you. This may include:

• Connecting with Positive Memories. Some people find it helpful to focus on positive memories or experiences that bring them comfort and joy.

• Imagining a Supportive Network. Others benefit from imagining nurturing and protective figures with them, such as family or friends, fictional characters, or spiritual figures. A good support network can provide a sense of security during challenging moments.

• Breathing Exercises and Affirmations. Learning breathing exercises and practicing affirmations can be effective tools to manage distress.

• Tapping into Passion. For some, channeling the sensations and emotions they experience when engaged in activities they love can be a great resource.

A good EMDR therapist will tailor the resourcing phase to your unique needs. Before processing anything upsetting, you should have a strong foundation of coping skills. This phase makes EMDR therapy a safe and effective process, providing you with the tools to face the turbulent task of healing and growth.

Phase 3: Targeting

The targeting phase typically doesn't involve bilateral stimulation. Targeting is about selecting a specific traumatic memory to address in future sessions. Your EMDR therapist will work with you to determine which memory to start with. This choice is crucial because it dictates the direction of your EMDR therapy. For example, if you've experienced a single incident sexual trauma, you might decide to target a specific moment that causes distress. It's also possible you and your EMDR therapist decide to start with a smaller trauma to see how you respond.

The Crucial Role of the Targeting Phase in EMDR Therapy

The targeting phase of EMDR therapy plays a central role in EMDR therapy's success. It can also be intricate and intense. This phase is about identifying and selecting specific traumatic memories to process. Here's a detailed look at the targeting phase and what it might entail:

1. Identification of Target Memories:

Your EMDR therapist will work with you to identify which traumatic memories are the most pressing. These are the memories that elicit strong emotional responses and continue to affect your well-being.

2. Evaluation of the Memory's Significance

Together you'll explore he content of the traumatic memory and its significance in your life. Your EMDR therapist will consider how this memory has influenced your beliefs, emotions, and behaviors.

3. Emotional Intensity Assessment

The targeting phase involves assessing the emotional intensity of the selected memory on a scale. This provides a baseline measure that helps track your progress through EMDR therapy. The goal is to reduce the emotional charge associated with the memory.

4. Cognitive Belief Assessment

In this phase, your EMDR therapist will also evaluate any negative beliefs or self-perceptions associated with the traumatic memory. For instance, if the memory is related to a car accident, you might hold beliefs like "I’m not safe" or "I’m powerless" when you think about the accident. You may logically know you’re safe, but it doesn’t feel true. Identifying these beliefs is a key aspect of EMDR.

5. Distress Rating

The EMDR therapist will ask you to rate your distress on a scale from 0 to 10, with 0 being no distress and 10 being extreme distress. They want to know how upsetting it is to you NOW to think about, not how upsetting it was to you then.

6. Identifying Positive Beliefs

Before reprocessing, your EMDR therapist will help you find a positive belief you would like to have. Positive beliefs serve to balance out to the negative beliefs associated with the traumatic memory. For example, if you previously believed "I am powerless," you might choose a positive belief like "I am resilient." It's okay if you don't fully believe this yet. In fact, if you already fully believe it, you might not need EMDR.

7. Exploring "Floatback" Memories:

Floatback" memories may come into play during the targeting phase. This technique involves exploring memories that are linked to the selected memory. "Floatback" memories can help uncover hidden triggers and themes that contribute to your distress. They don't always make complete sense. For example, if the targeted memory is a bad breakup, "floating back" may lead to a memory of being forgotten at school as a kid. The underlying theme here is feeling abandoned and alone.

Once the target memory has been chosen and explored, your EMDR therapist will start reprocessing with you.

The targeting phase is a thoughtful process that paves the way for effective trauma processing. It ensures that the therapy is tailored to your unique needs. Good EMDR addresses not only the traumatic memories but also the associated beliefs and emotions.

What Early Sessions Should Feel Like With Your EMDR Therapist

The steps above are an important part of early EMDR therapy. The preparation, resourcing, and targeting phases take different amounts of time for different people and for different traumas. The most important thing is that you feel trust in your EMDR therapist. When you have trust, it’s easier for you to do the difficult work of healing your trauma. It’s okay to feel some discomfort because trauma is inherently uncomfortable. But the discomfort shouldn’t come from your EMDR therapist.

EMDR Therapy Is Effective When You're Well Prepared

Your first EMDR sessions are about building a foundation for the work that lies ahead. While bilateral stimulation may not be prominent in initial sessions, the history collection, resourcing, and targeting phases are critical. Your path to healing begins with a solid foundation, and the right therapist can guide you on this journey.

Work With A Great EMDR Therapist in Los Angeles, San Francisco, or Throughout California

Our therapists are ready to walk you through a resource-heavy, grounded, and safe early EMDR therapy experience. If you’re ready to step into life post-trauma without the anxiety and heaviness, schedule a consultation so we can chat about what that looks like for you.