Your First EMDR Session - What to Expect

How EMDR Works - Step-by-Step

Embarking on EMDR therapy can feel both challenging and liberating. One of my clients, ‘Sophie’, arrived in our first session anxious and unsure - she had tried talk therapy before without relief. Knowing what to expect at each stage is key to developing trust and confidence in the process. In this blog post, I’ll guide you through each phase of the EMDR process, share Sophie’s journey and offer practical tips so you feel prepared every step of the way.

EMDR follows an eight-phase structure, designed to ensure safety, clarity, and effectiveness. Each EMDR phase is paired with a glimpse into Sophie’s experience, so you can see how the protocol comes alive in real practice.

Phase 1: Client History & Treatment Planning

In this initial stage, you and your therapist explore past traumas, current symptoms and treatment goals to shape a personalised EMDR plan.

For Sophie, we mapped out her history of social anxiety and pinpointed her most distressing school-day memory - being laughed at in front of classmates.

We begin by exploring your experiences and identifying the memories or beliefs that may be contributing to current difficulties.

Phase 2: Preparation

Here, you build coping skills - like grounding techniques and safe-place visualisations - to ensure you feel supported throughout the EMDR process.

Sophie practiced a simple breathing exercise in session and she was introduced to bilateral stimulation forming her safe place. Here she thought of a place she felt safe and calm in, imagining what she could see, smell, taste, hear and feel, then using bilateral stimulation she imagined herself in that place and noted what came up for her.

Phase 3: Assessment

We identify a specific memory to target, negative belief, desired positive belief, along with the emotions and physical sensations. You also rate the distress and belief strength.

With Sophie, she chose the laughing classmates scene as her target memory. Her negative belief was ‘I’m worthless’ and her desired positive belief ‘I am worthy’, which, before processing she rated as 3/7. She described her emotions as anxious and sad which she could feel in her face feeling flushed and her chest feeling tight. She rated the memory with a disturbance rating of 8/10.

Phase 4: Desensitisation

Using bilateral stimulation (e.g. eye movements or tapping), we begin to process the memory. You’ll notice shifts in how it feels—often becoming less intense or distressing.

After several sets of tapping, Sophie shared that the tightness in her chest was easing and by the end of the session her disturbance rating had dropped from 8/10 to 3/10.

At this point we may return to phase 2 to help ground you at the end of the session followed by a debrief. Or if the disturbance has reduced we will then continue to the next phase…

Phase 5: Installation

We strengthen a positive belief about yourself to replace the negative one linked to the memory.

As we revisited the ‘I am worthy’ belief, Sophie’s rating of that belief climbed from a 3/7 to 6/7, she smiled, saying, ‘I actually believe that about myself now’.

There was still room for processing here for Sophie, so we wondered what would make the 6 to a 7/7 and continued with bilateral stimulation.

Phase 6: Body Scan

You’ll check in with your body to notice any lingering tension or discomfort, which we can continue to process.

Sophie noticed a slight ache in her shoulders. We ran quick set of tapping and she described feeling ‘lighter, as if a weight lifted off’.

Phase 7: Closure

Each session ends with grounding techniques to help you leave feeling calm and supported.

Sophie used her safe-place visualisation and reaffirmed her breathing technique. She reported feeling calm enough to return to her day.

Phase 8: Re-evaluation

At the start of each new session, we review progress - distress levels, belief strength and any new targets. This helps to determine if further processing is needed.

When Sophie returned, her disturbance rating for the school memory had reduced from 8/10 to 1/10 and her belief in the positive belief stayed at 7/7.

👣 What to Expect in EMDR Sessions

Sessions typically last 60–90 minutes and are conducted at a pace that feels safe and manageable for you.

You’ll never be asked to relive trauma in detail—EMDR works by gently activating memories while using bilateral stimulation to reduce their emotional charge.

You’re always in control. You can pause, slow down, or stop at any time.

EMDR can be emotionally powerful, so we’ll build in time for reflection, grounding, and aftercare planning.