Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing
How Is EMDR Different From Talk Therapy?
Talk therapy often helps us make sense of what we're experiencing by putting words to our thoughts, feelings, relationships, and experiences. Through conversation, you can develop insight, learn new ways of coping, and begin to understand yourself in a deeper way.
EMDR can include talking, but the work doesn't stop there.
In both talk therapy and EMDR, we start by getting to know you, building a relationship, talking about what happened, understanding patterns, and beliefs. The difference is that this is just the first phase of EMDR and it doesn’t stop there. EMDR helps you gently work with the memory, emotions, beliefs, and body sensations that may still be carrying a charge through a 8 phase process and bilateral stimulation.
You might understand exactly why something affects you and still find yourself reacting the same way, which as you know, can become frusterating.
That's where EMDR can offer something different.
Rather than trying to reason your way out of a response, we give your brain an opportunity to process the experience itself. Through bilateral stimulation, you notice what comes up without needing to analyze, explain, or control it.
For some people, this can help create a shift that feels deeper than simply understanding something intellectually.
Talk therapy may sound like:
“Let's talk about what happened and understand how it has affected you.”
EMDR may sound more like:
“Let's notice what happens inside you when you think about it, and gently help your mind and body process what is still there.”
Neither approach is better for everyone. Sometimes talking is exactly what you need. Sometimes EMDR is a good fit. And often, the two work beautifully together.
Our work is not about choosing a technique simply because it is called EMDR. It's about finding the approach that fits you, your experiences, and where you are in your healing.
Why Does Bilateral Stimulation Help?
One of the most recognizable parts of EMDR is bilateral stimulation, moving your eyes from side to side, or using alternating sounds or taps from one side of the body to the other.
But why does this help?
Your brain is constantly processing information, connecting memories with emotions, sensations, meaning, and what is happening around you. When an experience is overwhelming, that processing can become disrupted. A memory may remain strongly connected to the body's threat response, so something in the present can activate a reaction that belongs to the past.
During EMDR, you hold a small amount of the experience in your awareness while also engaging in bilateral stimulation. This creates a form of dual attention: part of your attention is connected to the memory, while another part remains anchored in the present.
Research suggests that bilateral stimulation may place demands on working memory and reduce the vividness and emotional intensity of distressing memories. It may also support changes in how the memory is retrieved and reconsolidated, essentially giving the brain an opportunity to update how that experience is stored and experienced.
This is one reason EMDR can feel different from simply talking about a difficult experience.
You aren't being asked to analyze the memory over and over.
Instead, you are remembering while remaining connected to the present, allowing your brain to process information and make new associations.
Over time, a memory that once felt immediate and emotionally overwhelming can become something you can remember with greater distance and less activation.
The memory isn't erased.
What changes is the way your brain and nervous system respond to it.
