Understanding EMDR Therapy

EMDR, short for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, is a type of therapy created to help people work through trauma. But “processing” doesn’t mean just talking it out—it’s about helping the brain make sense of painful experiences and store them in a way that doesn’t continue to cause harm. EMDR works on the idea that a lot of our current struggles, behaviors, and stress come from unresolved past events, unmanaged present challenges, and even fear of future distress. While it was originally developed to treat PTSD, EMDR is now used as part of a broader approach to support people with eating disorders, too.

How EMDR Helps You Heal

Think of emotional healing like physical healing. When your body has a wound, it works to repair itself. But if something is stuck in the wound, like a splinter, it can’t heal. Trauma is that splinter in the mind. Your brain wants to recover, but unprocessed memories, emotions, and beliefs can block that natural process. EMDR 

The Science Behind It: Adaptive Information Processing (AIP)

EMDR is built on the Adaptive Information Processing (AIP) model. This theory states that your brain is naturally wired to process experiences and link them with other memories. But when something traumatic happens, that process can break down. The memory gets stuck as unresolved and emotionally intense. When something activates that memory (a smell, a sound, a thought), the body reacts as if it’s happening again. That’s where unhealthy coping strategies often begin.

EMDR gives people a safe space to revisit those memories, gain new understanding, and reduce their emotional impact. Eventually, when similar situations come up in the future, they don’t cause the same intense reaction, and you don’t have to fall back on unhealthy or maladaptive behaviors.

Why Eye Movements Matter

You might know REM (Rapid Eye Movement) as a stage of deep sleep where the brain organizes and stores memories. EMDR mimics this process while you’re awake. By guiding your eyes back and forth (similar to REM), a therapist helps activate the brain’s memory processing systems, making it easier to access and rework stuck memories. There are other options as well, including hand-tapping back and forth, holding hand buzzers that mimic the back and forth buzz, or even headphones. Your therapist will work with you to find the best option for you.

What to Expect in an EMDR Session

EMDR therapy moves through eight structured phases:

1. History-Taking: You will talk with your therapist about past experiences, current struggles, emotional reactions, and your ways of coping. This gives them a full picture of what’s going on and what might need to be addressed.

2. Preparation: The therapist explains how EMDR works and teaches you skills to manage strong emotions. Most importantly, they focus on building trust, so you feel safe enough to do this work.

3. Assessment: You choose a memory to work on. You identify a powerful image from it, the emotions it stirs, and where you feel it in your body. You also identify the negative belief it’s tied to, for example “I’m not good enough” or "I'm not safe."

4. Desensitization: This is where the eye movements come in. You follow a moving object with your eyes while thinking about the memory. This helps the brain begin to process the event and change how it affects you emotionally. The process is repeated several times until your distress level drops.

5. Installation: Once the memory loses its emotional charge, you work on replacing the old negative belief with a healthier, more accurate one, even empowering, like “I did the best I could.”

6. Body Scan: The therapist checks to see if your body is still holding onto any tension or discomfort from the memory. If it is, that gets addressed too.

7. Closure: Every session ends with grounding techniques to make sure you feel safe and stable, even if the memory wasn’t fully processed yet.

8. Reevaluation: At the start of the next session, you’ll revisit what you worked on and see if anything has changed. This ensures the progress is real and lasting, not just temporary.

Using EMDR for Disordered Eating

Disordered eating and trauma often go hand in hand. EMDR can help with a wide range of issues tied to eating disorders, such as:

• Traumatic or distressing past experiences

• Body image struggles

• Low self-worth

• Perfectionism

• Fear around food or eating habits

• The urge to use disordered behaviors to cope

By processing the underlying pain and beliefs that fuel the disordered eating, EMDR helps reduce the need for those harmful behaviors. It’s often used alongside other therapies like CBT, DBT, or narrative therapy for a more complete, individualized approach to healing. Ultimately, EMDR can help people with disordered eating feel more in control, less reactive to triggers, and more confident in their ability to recover

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For more information and resources please go to https://www.emdria.org/