Therapy Intensives

Phase 1

Gathering history and target identification.
The path to self-discovery begins here. First, your therapist will work with you to gather information related to your history and current symptoms. While going through the information-gathering stage, you will also get a chance to learn more about the actual EMDR process.

There is a good chance you will make several meaningful connections during this process. Your therapist would typically ask you to rate past life events on a disturbance scale to ensure your therapy targets are the most relevant issues. At the end of this phase, you will work with your therapist to set the treatment goals.

Phase 2

Education and resourcing.
During phase two of EMDR Therapy, you will be guided through imagery and stress reduction techniques that will be helpful during and between sessions. This stage also helps to foster trust between you and your therapist. In addition, we will want you to have a thorough explanation of the EMDR process, so you feel informed, relaxed, and confident during treatment. The goal of EMDR therapy is to produce rapid and effective change while also maintaining equilibrium between sessions.

Phase 3

Assessing and Determining Target Memories
During this phase, the actual trauma or negative events will come to the forefront. First, your therapist will ask you to start visualizing and experiencing relevant sensations related to a disturbing event. The therapist will then ask you to identify a positive and negative statement or emotion to describe how you feel about the event. Finally, you will rate the positive statement or emotion using the 1-to-7 Validity of Cognition (VoC) scale and the negative statement or emotion using the Subjective Units of Disturbance (SUD) scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being worst.

After setting the positive and negative baseline ratings, the goal of EMDR is to increase the VoC rating while decreasing the SUD rating.

Phase 4

Desensitization
In this phase, you will begin dealing with memories. As you re-process disturbing memories and the associated sensations, your brain will start to resolve issues naturally. As issues get resolved, you will begin to move closer to final trauma resolution incrementally as the SUD scale moves closer to zero (0).

Phase 5

Installation
By the time you reach this stage, you will have processed your disturbing memories to some level of resolution. You should begin to feel somewhat empowered and more in control of your feelings and emotions.

Phase 6

Body Scan
Your therapist will ask you to bring back the target negative event or trauma for reevaluation. The reevaluation process is called a body scan. After bringing back the negative event or trauma, your therapist will look to confirm that you no longer feel negative emotions or body stress related to the event or trauma. The process will be repeated until you report no residual negativity associated with the disturbing memory.

Phase 7

Closure
What happens during the closure phase will depend on where each session ends. For example, if you successfully resolved the negativity associated with the target memory, your therapist would close the session and reevaluate the target at your following appointment. However, if the negativity is not fully resolved, the therapist will end the session with containment and calming exercises. Closure exercises are intended to leave you feeling somewhat in control until you return to continue working on the final resolution.

Phase 8

Reevaluation
The reevaluation phase is when your therapist will evaluate the last treatment session's effectiveness. They will reevaluate disturbance levels to see if the positive feelings remain in control. If the previous EMDR therapy session was incomplete, the next session would pick up at phase 4.