What Does a Typical EMDR Session Actually Look Like? | Jenna barnes therapy
You’ve made the right connection, and you’re about to begin your therapy journey. During your consultation, you might have heard some weird mental health jargon: EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Or maybe you came in specifically because you’ve been hearing a lot about it lately.
Either way, I’m here to break down exactly what EMDR is, how it helps, and what an actual session looks like.
What’s EMDR?
Did you know that when you’re in REM sleep (your dreaming time), your eyes naturally move back and forth? It’s your brain's way of replaying your day, random events, people, and memories—almost like a movie.
That is exactly what EMDR mimics. We create this same movement while you are awake, known as bilateral stimulation (BLS). Bilateral stimulation simply means stimulating the left and right sides of the brain in an alternating pattern.
Think of it as opening the door to a crowded garage where you store old holiday decor, bikes, and keepsake bins. Our brains do the exact same thing with memories. When bilateral stimulation occurs, it opens that garage door and pulls out those dusty, locked-away filing cabinets from storage—unlocking the events we rarely think about but still carry with us.
How It Helps
Whether you’ve witnessed a single scary event, gone through ongoing abuse, or experienced some type of trauma—whether it’s a "little t" or a "big T"—traditional talk therapy can sometimes feel like it's spinning its wheels.
That’s where BLS comes in. It helps unlock the event and allows you to hyper-focus on it so your brain can begin processing it on its own. It's time to replay the event like a movie, but this time, we are dismantling the negative beliefs you've held about the event and yourself.
What the Session Looks Like
Once you and your therapist have established a good, safe working relationship, the time for EMDR arrives. What does that session actually look like?
After completing Phase 1 (gathering your history), we will choose a specific target memory. We'll identify the negative belief you have about yourself regarding that memory, as well as where you feel distress in your body.
Next, we use visual, tactile, or auditory cues to stimulate the brain:
Visual: Following the therapist's fingers, a moving light bar, or a specialized visual tool like bilateralstimulation.io.
Tactile/Auditory: Holding buzzers that gently vibrate in each hand, or listening to alternating tones in headphones.
A single round of BLS typically lasts between 20 to 60 seconds. During that time, you just notice whatever comes up—physical symptoms, thoughts, or images. Your therapist will complete a quick check-in between each set and document what you experience.
We repeat this process over and over, letting your brain do its natural healing work, until that old memory no longer hurts.
