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Experiences can make us feel highly reactive.

EMDR helps us access and organize these experiences and can lead to life shifts.

Bilateral stimulation supports adaptive information processing.

Many conversations about trauma and healing feature in daily social media posts, through terms like "inner child work" or "attachment wounds." While it is amazing that people are more in tune with themselves and more aware of their emotional patterns, it can also create a feeling of overwhelm when there is perceived pressure to heal quickly and correctly.

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is seen as a rapid solution or trending technique but EMDR is not a fad but an evidence-based trauma therapy, although one that, if used incorrectly, can be harmful. EMDR was introduced in 1987, and research published by Francine Shapiro in 1989 showed how it could lead to significant reductions in trauma symptoms.

While EMDR does help, it seems there is a misunderstanding in our world about what healing might require.

There is an increased visibility of mental health conversations everywhere, and that has some benefits; for example, people have increased labels for their internal experiences, and stigma continues to decrease. But this visibility can also create more harm, like:

feeling the need to analyze each reaction

comparison with others

feeling behind if symptoms keep happening

treating healing like a measurable achievement

This might leave people feeling discouraged or confused about why they keep struggling even when doing "the right things."

When someone goes through something traumatic, the brain tends to store parts of this experience in a fragmented way. This creates an unintegrated system, which can lead emotional reactions whose origins we don't understand.

EMDR helps the brain re-access, re-organize, and integrate experiences so they no longer trigger an intense level of distress.

We can look at this through two core processes:

1. Bilateral Stimulation and Adaptive Information Processing

During EMDR, you will engage in bilateral stimulation such as eye movements, tapping, or sound. This is seen as supporting the brain by reducing the intensity of the stress response, increasing adaptive information, and helping the nervous system stay anchored in the present. The stimulation helps the brain create dual attention, or the ability to stay connected to the present while safely accessing the past. This combo is what allows the brain to help process the material it previously avoided or pushed down.

2. Memory Updating and Reconsolidation

When a memory is activated in a safe and regulated state, the brain has an opportunity to update it. This is known as memory reconsolidation. Through EMDR, people often notice a decrease in emotional intensity to their triggers. Their traumatic memories feel less vivid, their body stops reacting as if the event is happening now, and old beliefs turn toward more grounded ones. The memory does not ever disappear; it just becomes more integrated, and this means it can no longer drive the same intense automatic responses the body used to have.

In a culture where healing is externalized by checklists, routines, and curated vulnerability, EMDR can stand out because it is clinical and paced by a clinician and the client's readiness. EMDR never requires retelling your trauma in detail, having the "right" language for your experience, or having a timeline for healing. It supports the brain in doing what it is designed to do, which is to process, integrate, and move forward to make more memories.

Take our Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Test

Find a therapist to heal from trauma.

Practice noticing when you feel as if healing is a competition or when you are comparing yourself to someone else's journey. Let yourself find your own safety, support, and healing.

To find a therapist, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.

Shapiro F. (1989). Eye movement desensitization: a new treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of behavior therapy and experimental psychiatry, 20(3), 211–217. doi.org/10.1016/0005-7916(89)90025-6

Gainer D, Alam S, Alam H, Redding H. A FLASH OF HOPE: Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy. Innov Clin Neurosci. 2020 Jul 1;17(7-9):12-20. PMID: 33520399; PMCID: PMC7839656.

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