Summit Counselling Services — Modality
EMDR TherapyProcessing what happened — without having to retell every detail of it.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing is one of the most evidence-based approaches available for trauma and PTSD. It works differently from talk therapy — and for many people, it works faster and more completely than years of talking alone.
What Is EMDR?
Trauma stored in the body — processed by the brain.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an evidence-based psychotherapy developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro in the late 1980s. It's now one of the most extensively researched and widely recommended treatments for PTSD and trauma — endorsed by the World Health Organization, the American Psychological Association, and numerous other international health bodies.
EMDR is based on the understanding that traumatic experiences can become "stuck" in the brain's memory networks — stored in a way that retains the original emotional charge, physical sensations, and distorted beliefs from the time of the event. This is why trauma memories can feel as vivid and threatening decades later as they did the moment they happened.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation — typically guided eye movements, but sometimes tapping or auditory tones — to activate both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously while you briefly hold a traumatic memory in mind. This process appears to facilitate the brain's natural information processing system, allowing traumatic memories to be reprocessed and stored in a way that no longer triggers the original distress response.
What makes EMDR distinct is that it doesn't require you to talk through the details of what happened in the way traditional talk therapy does. Many people find this makes traumatic material more accessible — and the relief more complete.
"EMDR doesn't erase memories — it changes the way they're stored, so they no longer carry the same charge. The past stays in the past."
EMDR is effective for
- PTSD and complex trauma
- Sexual assault and abuse recovery
- Betrayal trauma and infidelity
- Childhood trauma and adverse early experiences
- Accident, medical, or surgical trauma
- First responder and occupational trauma
- Grief and complicated bereavement
- Anxiety and phobias
- Depression rooted in past experiences
- Panic disorder
- Low self-worth and shame connected to past events
- Performance anxiety in sport and work contexts
- Birth trauma — for birthing and non-birthing partners
The Eight Phases
How EMDR actually works
EMDR follows a structured eight-phase protocol — but you don't need to move through it quickly. Your therapist will go at your pace, and stabilization always comes before processing.
History & Preparation
Your therapist takes a thorough history and works with you to build internal resources — grounding techniques, safe place imagery, stabilization skills. No trauma processing happens until you both feel you're ready. This phase can take several sessions.
Assessment & Desensitization
A specific traumatic memory is identified along with its associated negative beliefs, emotions, and body sensations. Bilateral stimulation begins — you hold the memory lightly in mind while following the therapist's movements. Distress typically reduces naturally.
Installation & Body Scan
Once distress around the memory has reduced, a positive belief is strengthened in its place ("I am safe now" rather than "I am in danger"). A body scan checks for any remaining tension or disturbance held physically.
Closure & Re-evaluation
Each session closes with stabilization — you leave feeling grounded, not activated. The following session begins with re-evaluation to check how the processing has settled, and whether to continue with the same memory or move to another.
Where EMDR Is Particularly Powerful
When talk therapy isn't enough on its own
EMDR is often sought by people who have done significant talk therapy and found that understanding what happened hasn't fully changed how they feel about it. That gap — between knowing and feeling — is exactly what EMDR addresses.
Single-Incident Trauma
Accidents, assaults, medical events, disasters — a single overwhelming experience that the brain has failed to fully process. EMDR often produces rapid, significant relief for single-incident trauma, sometimes in fewer sessions than people expect.
Complex & Developmental Trauma
Childhood abuse, neglect, or a chaotic early environment creates layers of traumatic memory that influence identity, relationships, and emotional regulation in adulthood. EMDR works with this complexity — more slowly, and with more stabilization work, but often with profound results.
When the Body Holds the Memory
Trauma that triggers immediate physical responses — the racing heart, the freeze, the nausea — even when you know intellectually that you're safe. EMDR works at the level where these responses are stored, not just the cognitive narrative about what happened.
When Talking Feels Re-Traumatizing
For some people, detailed verbal retelling of trauma activates the full distress response rather than helping process it. EMDR doesn't require extensive verbal description — you can work with a memory without narrating it in detail, which many people find both safer and more effective.
Anxiety with a Traumatic Root
Anxiety that persists despite significant CBT work, or that clearly connects to specific past experiences, often responds well to EMDR. By processing the underlying events, the anxiety loses much of its fuel.
Negative Core Beliefs
"I am not safe." "I am worthless." "It was my fault." These deeply held negative beliefs, formed in the context of traumatic experience, often respond to EMDR in ways that years of cognitive work alone cannot fully achieve — because they're stored at a level below conscious reasoning.
What Changes
The past stays in the past. You stay in the present.
After successful EMDR processing, people often describe the same memory as feeling "distant" or "flat" — no longer carrying the charge that made it intrusive, activating, or defining. The memory is still there. What changes is its weight.
The negative beliefs that formed in the context of trauma — "I'm not safe," "I'm to blame," "I'm broken" — shift. Not through persuasion, but through the brain's own reprocessing. What replaces them tends to feel like something more settled and true: "I survived." "It wasn't my fault." "I can handle this."
EMDR is one of the few approaches where clients regularly describe feeling surprised by how much has shifted — often in fewer sessions than they expected. It doesn't work for everyone, and it isn't always fast, but when it works, it can be transformative.
Setting the Record Straight
What EMDR is — and isn't
EMDR is one of the most misunderstood therapies. Here's what it actually involves.
It's Not Hypnosis
You remain fully conscious and in control throughout EMDR. You are not in a trance, you are not suggestible, and your therapist cannot implant memories or beliefs. You direct the process — you can stop at any time, and nothing happens without your active participation.
You Don't Have to Relive the Trauma
EMDR doesn't require you to narrate traumatic events in detail or stay in the full emotional intensity of the memory. You hold the memory lightly — at a distance — while bilateral stimulation facilitates processing. Most people find it significantly less activating than they expected.
The Eye Movements Are Not the Only Option
Bilateral stimulation can be delivered through eye movements, auditory tones (alternating in each ear), or tactile tapping. If eye movements are uncomfortable or inaccessible for any reason, your therapist will use an alternative. The mechanism works across modalities.
It Has a Robust Evidence Base
EMDR has been studied in hundreds of randomized controlled trials and is endorsed by the WHO, the American Psychological Association, the UK's NICE guidelines, and numerous other international bodies as an evidence-based treatment for PTSD and trauma. It is not a fringe approach.
Book a Session
Find us in Edmonton, St. Albert & Windermere
EMDR is available in person at all three Summit locations, and virtually for clients anywhere in Alberta.
Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ (Oliver)
Grandin Plaza, 2nd Floor
Edmonton, AB
Common Questions
EMDR — your questions answered
Our Therapists
Therapists trained in EMDR at Summit
The clinicians below have specific EMDR training and experience. A free 15-minute consultation is always available — use it to discuss your situation and find the right fit before committing to a first session.
Related Approaches
Other modalities we work with
What happened doesn't have to keep happening to you.
Your first consultation is free — no commitment, no pressure. Just a conversation about where you are and whether EMDR might be the right fit.
We acknowledge that our practice is located in Treaty 6 territory, on the traditional lands of the Cree, Saulteaux, Niitsitapi (Blackfoot), Métis, and Nakota Sioux Peoples, including our Brewery District office in Wîhkwêntôwin ᐄᐧᐦᑫᐧᐣᑑᐃᐧᐣ (Oliver). We recognize that healing and reconciliation is a responsibility shared by all.