The 8 Phases of EMDR Therapy
EMDR runs on eight phases, and the eye movements belong to just one of them. The structure, with stabilization first and a planned calm landing every session, is what makes the work safe.
Battling addiction & ready for help?
People hear “eye movement therapy” and picture a strange afternoon: a therapist waving fingers, a hard memory, and somehow you feel better. The real method is far more deliberate than that. EMDR runs on eight phases, and the eye movements you’ve heard about belong to just one of them. Most of the work, and almost all of the safety, lives in the phases that come before.
That structure is the point. The eight phases turn an open-ended “let’s talk about the worst thing that happened to you” into a staged process with a beginning, a middle, and a planned soft landing at the end of every session. If you are weighing whether you could sit through this, knowing the map ahead of time tends to take the dread out of it.
- EMDR is built on a theory, not a trick: the eight phases come straight from the Adaptive Information Processing model, which holds that symptoms come from memories that got stored “unprocessed” and stayed raw[1][2].
- Only one of the eight phases uses eye movements: desensitization is phase four. The three phases before it are entirely about your history, your safety, and your readiness[3].
- Stabilization is treated as essential, not optional: the preparation phase builds grounding and calming skills first, so reaching a painful memory later doesn’t overwhelm you[3].
- Every session is designed to end stable: the closure phase exists specifically so you never walk out of the room mid-distress, whether or not the memory was fully reprocessed[2].
Why EMDR Has Phases at All
To follow the eight phases, it helps to know the idea underneath them. EMDR was built on a model its founder called Adaptive Information Processing, or AIP. The claim is simple to state. Your brain normally digests an experience and files it away as an ordinary memory: you know it happened, but it no longer hurts the way it did. A traumatic experience can jam that system. The memory gets stored raw, with the original fear, sights, and body sensations still attached, and so it keeps firing as if the danger were still here[1][2].
EMDR’s whole goal is to restart that stalled processing. The eight phases are the staged way of doing it: first make the person safe and ready, then reach the stuck memory in a contained way, help it move and settle, and confirm the result held. The model has been refined and debated by researchers over the years, with several newer frameworks proposed to sharpen or extend it, but the AIP idea remains the backbone of how the therapy is taught and practiced[4][3].
One thing worth saying plainly up front: researchers still don’t fully agree on why the bilateral stimulation in phase four helps, and the exact mechanism remains an open question in the science[5]. That uncertainty about the “how” sits oddly next to a strong record of results for trauma. The eight-phase structure is what makes the method consistent and safe regardless of which mechanism theory turns out to be most right.
The Eight Phases at a Glance
Here is the whole arc in one view. Notice how late the eye movements actually appear, and how much groundwork comes first.
| Phase | Plain-language name | What actually happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | History and treatment planning | The therapist learns your story and chooses which memories to target |
| 2 | Preparation | You learn grounding and calming skills and what to expect, so you feel steady |
| 3 | Assessment | You pick one target memory, the belief tied to it, and rate how distressing it feels now |
| 4 | Desensitization | You hold the memory in mind during bilateral stimulation until the distress drops |
| 5 | Installation | You strengthen a truer, more helpful belief in the memory’s place |
| 6 | Body scan | You check the body for leftover tension the memory still holds |
| 7 | Closure | You return to steady ground before the session ends, every time |
| 8 | Reevaluation | The next session checks what held and what still needs work |
Read that table top to bottom and the design becomes obvious. Phases 1 through 3 are preparation and aim. Phase 4 is the part everyone pictures. Phases 5 through 8 lock in the gain and make sure you’re safe. A clinician who rushes you from “hello” to a raw memory in the first hour is not doing EMDR by the book.
Phase 1—History and Treatment Planning
The first phase is a conversation, not a procedure. The therapist takes your history and works out which memories are driving the symptoms you walked in with. In the AIP framework, today’s triggers usually trace back to specific past events, so part of the job is finding the root memories that the present-day distress is built on[2].
Out of that history comes a target list: the particular memories you’ll eventually work through, often in a deliberate order. Nothing distressing gets reprocessed in this phase. You’re mapping the territory, and the therapist is also getting a read on whether you’re ready to start and what might need shoring up first.
Phase 2—Preparation and Stabilization
This is the phase that makes the rest survivable, and it’s the one cheap imitations skip. Before any hard memory is touched, you build a toolkit of grounding and stabilization skills: ways to calm your body, a mental “safe place” you can return to, and techniques to stop a wave of distress from carrying you off. Defining and protecting this stabilization step is considered part of doing EMDR properly, not an optional add-on[3].
The therapist also explains how the processing will work and what bilateral stimulation feels like, so the mechanics aren’t a surprise when you reach them. For people with a long or layered trauma history, this phase can take several sessions on its own. Spending real time here is a sign the work is being done right, not a sign of slow progress.
Phase 3—Assessment of the Target
Now the work narrows to a single memory. In the assessment phase you and the therapist set up the target with precision: you call the memory to mind, identify the image that holds the most charge, name the negative belief attached to it (“I’m powerless,” “it was my fault”), and choose the truer belief you’d rather hold instead.
You also take two baseline readings that get used to track progress. One rates how disturbing the memory feels right now, on a 0-to-10 distress scale. The other rates how true that better belief currently feels, on a separate 1-to-7 scale. These numbers aren’t busywork: they give both of you a concrete way to see the memory’s grip loosen over the next phases[2].
EMDR measures its own progress in real time. The distress rating (0 to 10) is meant to fall toward 0 across phase four, while the rating of how true the new, healthier belief feels (1 to 7) is meant to climb toward 7 in phase five. Watching those two numbers move is often the first proof a stuck memory is finally shifting.
Phase 4—Desensitization
This is the phase the whole therapy is named for. You hold the target memory in mind, along with the feeling and the negative belief, while you follow short sets of bilateral stimulation—usually the therapist’s fingers moving side to side, sometimes taps or alternating tones. Between each set you pause, notice whatever surfaced, and report it briefly. Then you do another set. You’re not asked to narrate the memory in detail; much of the movement happens internally.
The leading scientific account for why this part works is the working memory account. Holding a vivid memory and tracking a demanding side-to-side task at the same time competes for the brain’s limited working memory. Starved of full attention, the memory comes back less vivid and less emotionally intense on the next recall. Controlled experiments have shown exactly this drop in vividness and emotionality after eye movements, and that more cognitively demanding versions of the task tend to work better[6][7][8]. You repeat sets until the memory’s distress rating falls toward zero.
Phase 5—Installation
Once the memory’s charge has dropped, the focus flips from the old belief to the new one. In the installation phase you strengthen the truer, healthier belief you chose back in assessment—moving from “I was powerless” toward “I survived, and I’m safe now”—and pair it with the memory using more sets of bilateral stimulation. The aim is for that better belief to feel genuinely true when you think of the event, not just recited. This is where the 1-to-7 “how true does it feel” rating is meant to climb[2].
Phase 6—Body Scan
Trauma lives in the body, not only the mind, so EMDR checks there too. In the body scan, you hold the memory and the new belief together and notice any leftover physical tension—a tight chest, a clenched jaw, a knot in the stomach. If something lingers, it gets targeted with more sets until the body, like the mind, can hold the memory without bracing. A clean body scan is one signal the memory has settled.
Phase 7—Closure
The closure phase is one of the clearest signs EMDR was built with care. Every single session ends here, whether the target was fully processed or not. Using the grounding skills from phase two, the therapist brings you back to steady ground before you leave, so you’re never sent out into your day mid-distress[2]. If a memory wasn’t finished, closure contains it safely until next time.
Between sessions, expect some continued movement. Memories may keep shifting, and a dream or a stray thought can surface. That’s normal, and the next phase is built to catch it.
Phase 8—Reevaluation
The final phase opens the next session. Before new work begins, the therapist checks what held: Did the memory you processed stay settled? Did anything new come up during the week? Reevaluation makes EMDR a loop rather than a single pass—each target gets confirmed before the work moves on, and the treatment plan from phase one is adjusted as you go. When the targets on the list are processed and holding, the course of therapy winds down.
How the Phases Bend for Addiction
The eight phases are the standard frame for trauma. When EMDR is used in addiction care, that frame stays, but the targets can shift. Because trauma and substance use so often travel together, post-traumatic symptoms are common among people in addiction treatment, and addressing the underlying trauma is one way EMDR is used in recovery[9]. There, the target list in phase one often includes the memories driving the using.
Specialized addiction protocols go a step further and point the same eight-phase engine at the craving itself rather than at an old trauma, targeting the triggers and urges that fire in the present[10]. The structure is the same; the target changes. If trauma is part of what’s fueling the using for you, that’s worth exploring—see how EMDR is used for addiction and cravings →.
EMDR is also rarely the whole plan. It works best layered onto the rest of real recovery care. The skills-based side—cognitive behavioral therapy for spotting triggers and reshaping the thoughts that drive use, and the day-to-day coping tools of dialectical behavioral therapy—pairs naturally with the trauma work EMDR does. And EMDR sits within the broader family of trauma-focused therapy that recovery often draws on.
What the Eight Phases Add Up To
Strip away the unfamiliar parts and EMDR is a careful, staged way to help a stuck memory finally move. The history-taking aims it. The preparation makes it safe. The desensitization, installation, and body scan do the reprocessing. Closure protects you at the end of every hour, and reevaluation confirms it held. The eye movements get the attention, but it’s the structure around them that makes EMDR something a frightened person can actually walk through.
If a difficult past has been feeding the present—through PTSD, through using, or both—the idea that those memories can be processed and set down is not wishful thinking. It’s the whole premise of the eight phases. Find treatment and people who can help →
The next step doesn’t have to be a big one. Our treatment centers directory can point you to the right level of care. Reaching out today is a real step forward — and one you can make right now.
Frequently asked questions
What are the 8 phases of EMDR therapy?
In order, the eight phases are: history and treatment planning, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation. The first three set up the work by taking your history, building coping skills, and choosing a target memory. Desensitization is the phase that uses bilateral stimulation. Installation and the body scan lock in a healthier belief and clear leftover physical tension. Closure returns you to steady ground at the end of every session, and reevaluation checks at the next session that the gains held[2][3].
Which EMDR phase uses the eye movements?
Only phase four, desensitization, uses the side-to-side eye movements most people picture. You hold a target memory in mind while following short sets of bilateral stimulation, which can be eye movements, taps, or alternating tones, until the distress drops. The three phases before it focus entirely on your history, your stability, and setting up the target. The leading explanation for why phase four works is that the dual task taxes working memory, leaving the memory less vivid and less emotional on later recall[6][7].
Why does EMDR spend so long on preparation before the trauma work?
Because reaching a painful memory safely depends on being able to steady yourself first. The preparation phase builds grounding and self-calming skills and a mental safe place before any hard memory is touched, and protecting that stabilization step is considered part of doing EMDR correctly rather than an optional extra[3]. For people with a long or layered trauma history, preparation can take several sessions. Time spent here is a sign the work is being done well.
What is the Adaptive Information Processing model behind EMDR?
Adaptive Information Processing, or AIP, is the theory the eight phases are built on. It proposes that the brain normally digests an experience into an ordinary memory you can recall without reliving, but trauma can leave a memory stored raw, with its original emotions and sensations still attached, so it keeps firing as if the danger were present. EMDR aims to restart that stalled processing so the memory finally settles into the past[1][2]. The model has been refined and debated over the years but remains the backbone of how EMDR is taught[4].
Do the 8 phases change for addiction treatment?
The eight-phase structure stays the same, but the targets can shift. Because trauma and substance use often travel together, EMDR in addiction care frequently targets the memories driving the using[9]. Specialized addiction protocols point the same engine at the craving itself, targeting the triggers and urges that fire in the present rather than an old trauma[10]. You can see how that works in the EMDR for addiction and cravings overview at /treatment/emdr/for-addiction/.
Will I have to describe the traumatic memory in detail during EMDR?
No. Unlike some talk-based trauma therapies, EMDR does not require you to narrate the memory in detail or out loud. During desensitization you hold the memory in mind and follow short sets of bilateral stimulation, pausing between sets to briefly report whatever surfaced. Much of the processing happens internally, which is part of why some people find EMDR more bearable than therapies built around retelling the story. The closure phase is designed to return you to calm at the end of every session, never mid-distress[2].
Get Treatment Help
If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, getting help is just a phone call away, or consider trying therapy online with BetterHelp.
Exclusive offer: 20% Off BetterHelp*Following links to the BetterHelp website may earn us a commission that helps us manage and maintain AddictionHelp.com. *Get 20% off your first month of BetterHelp. Offer valid for new BetterHelp users only. Offer cannot be combined with insurance.
- Fact-Checked
- Editor
