EMDR

EMDR is  made up of 8 "Phases" of Treatment. However, during your first appointment it is highly unlikely that you will progress through all eight phases.  The first appointment begins the process of taking a complete history of your current functioning and history of trauma. During this initial phase and for the next several sessions, you and your therapist will focus on building a relationship, gathering information, preparing resources and coping skills and completing verbal assessments of your personal situation.  

After you and your therapist have established a rapport, shared the relevant history and completed a thorough assessment on the traumatic memory that you wish you work on, you will begin the middle phase of treatment. 

In this phase, you will begin the process known as Densensitization.  This is where the negative "charge" from your traumatic memory is causing distress using a method known as "bilateral stimulation".  Bilateral stimuation can include eye movements, taps, or tones (you choose).  During this work, the negative thoughts/feelings/images related to your trauma become less distressing and are replaced with neutral or more positive thoughts.  

As those positive associations become more salient, the physical distress in your body goes away.

You still remember the traumatic event.   It does not change the past.  EMDR simply helps remove any negative thoughts you carry about YOURSELF related to the trauma and replace them with other accurate, but more helpful thoughts.  

You will check back in on those negative thoughts over time to see that no additional negative thoughts or sensations arise when thinking of that memory.  Towards the end of therapy, you will focus on the changes in your physiological and psychological functioning and look at either identifying additional traumatic memories to target or terminating therapy. 

Individuals might repeat this cycle of the 8 Phases of EMDR treatment many times throughout their overall therapy depending on the nature of their trauma.