EMDR and Your Brain - EMDRIA

EMDR Therapy and Your Brain

Upsetting Events

Unpleasant, traumatic, or distressing events happen to us all the time. Memories of these events can get stuck in our brain and impact us, even without us realizing it.

Regular Memory

In the ideal brain process, an event happens and it gets linked appropriately in your memory. Something reminds you of the event and you have positive or neutral thoughts and feelings about yourself. “I did the best I could.”

Stuck Memory

Sometimes, an event happens and it gets stuck in your memory, due to the brain’s fight, flight, or freeze response—or because of other past experiences. Something reminds you of the event and you have negative thoughts and feelings about yourself. “I’m such a failure.”

How EMDR Therapy Can Help

Your therapist builds rapport, equips you with tools to support your window of tolerance, guides you through eye movements and other methods while you bring about the unpleasant event to your mind’s eye. We test the bandwidth of your window of tolerance in compassionate and empathetic ways. With the proper steps and somatically reimagining what else is possible, the unpleasant thoughts, feelings, and sensations either (1) fade away and/ or (2) the emotional charge associated with the disturbing thoughts fade away.

The previous event or events becomes just a memory, not the totality of who you are.

After EMDR Therapy

Individuals are able to access a broader range of emotions and a broader perspective.

“The threat is over. I did my best.”

Originally published in EMDRIA on October 1, 2023. Updated September 20, 2024. Modifications made to the description by clinician for the purposes of current website on April 19, 2025.