EMDR has gotten a lot of publicity over the last several years. Personally, I think this is wonderful, because more people can get the help it offers. The downside, however, is that not all the information out there is accurate.
Some of what people have heard comes from movies or social media, or from a friend of a friend who tried it once. Sometimes all people have heard is the name of this type of therapy, and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing doesn't exactly explain itself.
Myths matter because they keep people from getting help. If you're afraid of something, it's hard to walk through the door and find out whether what you've heard is true. So let's clear up a few common myths I've come across over the years.
Myth: "It's just following a finger with your eyes."
I hear this one a lot, and I understand why. Eye movements are the part people can picture, the piece you could spot from across the room.
But eye movements are only one aspect of a much bigger structure. EMDR rests on a full model of how the brain stores and processes experiences. The eye movements are the intervention, rather than the whole approach. Think of them as the part you can see above the waterline.
Before we ever get to bilateral stimulation (the technical term for eye movements, taps, or tones), we spend time on your history, build resources, and make sure your system can handle the work. At the end of every processing session, we check in and close down the activated material carefully.
And again, bilateral stimulation doesn't have to be eye movements. Some people do better with taps or tones. We try each one and find what works best for your own processing.
Bottom line: there's far more to an EMDR session than moving your eyes back and forth.
(If you want the full walkthrough, I break down a typical session in What Happens in an EMDR Session?.)
Myth: "It only works for PTSD or ‘Big T’ trauma."
EMDR was built for trauma, and that's still a large part of what it does. But that's not where it stops.
Trauma isn't only the "Big T" events, the accidents, assaults, and losses people think of first. It's also the "little t" experiences that pile up quietly. Being dismissed. Growing up on edge. Learning early that your needs were too much, or not enough.
In my office, I use EMDR for anxiety, grief, medical trauma, and attachment wounds. Many of the people I work with wouldn't actually call what they've been through "trauma" at all. They just know something from the past still runs deep and shows up in present-day moments.
Researchers have also studied EMDR for depression, chronic pain, OCD, and addiction. The evidence is strongest for trauma, but the list keeps growing.
If you've been telling yourself it wasn't bad enough to count, but you also find yourself revisiting it more often than you would like, that's worth a conversation. That's not weakness. It’s your system telling you something isn't finished.
(I wrote more about this in What Can EMDR Help With?.)
Myth: "I'll lose control or be forced to relive everything."
This fear is real, and it deserves a real answer.
In EMDR, you are not thrown back into the worst moment of your life. Throughout processing, you keep one foot in the present and the other in the memory. During a session, you know you're in my office and you know you're safe now. That's an important part of why it works.
Think of it like riding a train and watching the scenery go by. You see it, but you're not stuck in it. And you can ask the train to slow down.
You also have a say. We go at a pace your nervous system can handle. You can pause. You can stop. If something feels like too much, we have tools for that, and we build them before any processing starts.
Needing to feel safe isn't in the way of the work. It is part of the work.
This is a process we walk through together. Your feedback and readiness shape every step.
Myth: "It works in one session."
I wish this one were true.
Some single-incident experiences can resolve faster than people expect. But there's no honest way to promise a number. How long it takes depends on what you're working through, how long you've been carrying it, and what else is going on in your life right now.
Work that goes back to childhood, or to relationships that shaped how you see yourself, usually takes more time. Something that took years to take root rarely lifts in a single hour. That's not a sign something is wrong. It's just a bigger story.
I'll cover this in more detail in the next post.
Myth: "If I don't see images in my head, it won't work for me."
Not everyone is a visual person. Some people don't picture memories at all, and that's totally fine.
A memory can show up as a feeling in your chest, a thought, a body sensation, or a sound. Sometimes it's just a sense of knowing. EMDR works with whatever your brain gives us. Even if parts of the memory are missing, we can look at how your system stored the rest and work from there.
If you've ever sat in a therapy room feeling like you were failing because you couldn't "see" it, you weren't failing.
There's no right way to remember. And there's no wrong way to do this.
Myth: "It's not real therapy, and there's no science behind it."
I understand the skepticism. The name sounds unusual, and the process looks different from traditional talk therapy. Asking questions about anything you're about to try with your mind and body is healthy.
But EMDR has been studied for decades. It's recommended for trauma treatment by major organizations, including the World Health Organization, the American Psychological Association, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Researchers are still learning exactly why it works. One leading theory is that EMDR engages your brain much like REM sleep, when your brain sorts through the information from your day. What we know for sure is that it helps many people feel differently about memories that used to feel unbearable.
What the Myths Leave Out
Most of the myths about EMDR leave out the same thing: you're not doing this alone.
You don't have to perform. You don't have to explain every detail. You don't have to be ready for the hardest thing first. You just have to be willing to start. And someone is in the room with you the whole way.
If you're in the Orlando area and have questions about whether EMDR is right for you, reach out to Renewed Perspective Counseling and Consulting to schedule a consultation.