What is EMDR?
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a therapy approach designed to help people recover from experiences that feel unresolved—especially those that continue to affect your emotions, body, or beliefs long after the event is over.
At its core, EMDR therapy helps the brain do what it was wired to do: process and integrate experiences in a way that feels safe and adaptive. When something overwhelming happens, especially if it feels sudden, isolating, or unsafe, that experience may not get fully processed at the time. Instead, it becomes “stuck,” leading to ongoing emotional reactions, body memories, or distorted beliefs about yourself and the world.
Many people come to EMDR not because they’ve experienced a single traumatic event, but because they feel trapped in patterns they don’t understand. Maybe you keep having the same reaction, even though you “know better.” Maybe you’ve done talk therapy and gained insight, but something still hasn’t shifted. That’s often where EMDR can help.
Unlike traditional talk therapy, EMDR doesn’t require you to relive or retell what happened in detail. Instead, it works by using bilateral stimulation—like guided eye movements, tapping, or alternating tones—to activate both sides of the brain while you briefly focus on a memory, image, or belief.
This process allows your nervous system to reprocess the experience and shift how it’s stored. The goal isn’t to forget or erase—it’s to help your brain recognize that the event is over. The emotional charge softens. The intensity fades. The memory becomes something that happened, rather than something you’re still reliving.
EMDR is both structured and flexible. It follows a specific eight-phase protocol, but your pace and readiness always guide the process. Therapy begins with thorough preparation: understanding your history, building trust with your therapist, and strengthening your internal resources. Reprocessing begins only when you feel ready.
Though EMDR is best known as a trauma treatment, it’s also effective for issues like anxiety, chronic shame, body-based symptoms, or deeply held beliefs like “I’m not safe” or “I’m not enough.” Whether your pain comes from a clear event or from years of subtle, cumulative experiences, EMDR creates space for something new to emerge—clarity, regulation, and relief that lasts.
EMDR therapy at our Westmount location can take place either in-person or online as is tailored to your goals and pace. Whether you’re recovering from a single incident or untangling more complex trauma, our clinicians can help you move toward healing with care and skill.
What to Expect From the EMDR Process
EMDR is not just a method—it’s a process that unfolds in phases, tailored to your nervous system, your history, and your goals for therapy.
Some people start EMDR after a clear traumatic event. Others begin because they feel stuck in patterns of anxiety, shutdown, or self-doubt that they can’t explain. Wherever you're starting from, EMDR meets you there. It’s structured, but flexible. Grounded in research, but responsive to your lived experience.
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At Reframe, EMDR begins with slowing down—not jumping in. Your therapist will take time to get to know what’s bringing you here and how your nervous system responds to stress. Together, you’ll build tools for emotional regulation and safety before touching anything distressing. This is part of the formal EMDR protocol, and it’s also just good therapy.
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Early Sessions
In early sessions, you and your therapist will:
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Clarify what’s been difficult or persistent in your life
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Identify any specific memories or beliefs that might be linked to those patterns
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Track how your body and emotions respond in the present
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Build coping strategies so you can stay grounded between sessions
Some people spend several sessions in this phase. That’s normal, and sometimes essential. Rushing to process trauma without stability can backfire. Instead, EMDR gives your system time to prepare.
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Beginning Reprocessing
Once you feel ready, your therapist will guide you into the reprocessing phase. You’ll bring to mind a target—this might be a memory, a mental image, a negative belief, or even a body sensation—and then engage in bilateral stimulation (such as side-to-side eye movements or tapping).
As your brain begins to process the experience, new associations often emerge. You might feel emotions rise and pass. You might notice shifts in your body. You may have realizations that reframe the past. This is your nervous system integrating what it couldn’t resolve before.
You’re never alone in this. Your therapist will stay attuned, offer grounding when needed, and help you track what’s shifting.
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Integration and Closure
Each session ends with a return to regulation. You don’t leave raw or destabilized. The goal of EMDR is not to stir things up—it’s to help things land. As the process unfolds, most clients report a softening: the memory loses its edge, the reactions feel less intense, and new meaning begins to form.
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You may not always walk away feeling “fixed.” But you will begin to feel less held back. And over time, those shifts often reach into areas of life that used to feel stuck—relationships, work, your ability to rest, your sense of self.
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EMDR and Complex Trauma
Complex trauma doesn’t come from one single event. It’s the result of repeated or prolonged experiences that left you feeling unsafe, powerless, or emotionally alone—often during childhood or in key relationships. This might include:
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Growing up with emotional neglect, unpredictable caregiving, or frequent criticism
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Long-term exposure to instability, violence, or unsafe environments
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Repeated experiences of rejection, shame, or betrayal
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Situations where your needs were ignored—or punished—for too long
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Over time, these experiences shape the way you see yourself, relate to others, and respond to stress. You might find yourself:
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Getting stuck in self-blame or shame
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Feeling numb, disconnected, or hypervigilant
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Repeating relationship patterns you don’t want but can’t seem to change
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Struggling with a constant undercurrent of anxiety, sadness, or confusion
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Knowing that the past still affects you but not knowing how to access or change it
This is where EMDR for complex trauma can be especially powerful.​
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Why EMDR Works for Complex Trauma
Insight and reflection aren’t always enough to shift patterns that were wired into your body and nervous system early on. EMDR offers a way to reach the parts of your experience that words don’t always access.
Using a structured process and bilateral stimulation, EMDR helps the brain return to memories or patterns that feel “frozen in time.” But instead of staying stuck there, the brain begins to reprocess and release what couldn’t be resolved at the time.
In the context of complex trauma, this might mean:
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Revisiting a moment where you felt abandoned—and shifting the belief that you were unlovable
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Processing experiences of humiliation or fear without being overwhelmed by them
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Exploring early relational wounds at a pace that honors your system’s capacity
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Releasing the feeling that you’re constantly bracing for something to go wrong
The goal of EMDR isn’t to re-experience pain, but to complete the emotional and cognitive processing that never got to happen—so that you can move forward without carrying the past in your body every day.
Can EMDR Help With Eating Disorders?
While eating disorders often involve visible behaviours, like restricting, bingeing, or purging, the roots usually run much deeper. Many clients living with disordered eating also carry underlying trauma, attachment wounds, or long-standing beliefs about safety, worth, and control.
EMDR therapy can be a powerful addition to eating disorder treatment by targeting these emotional and relational roots. Rather than focusing solely on behaviour, EMDR helps reprocess the core emotional experiences that drive the eating disorder forward.
This may include:
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Unresolved memories of emotional abuse, bullying, or body shaming
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Experiences of abandonment, rejection, or chaotic caregiving
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Early trauma linked to food, control, or identity
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Internalized beliefs like “I’m not safe unless I control everything” or “My worth depends on how I look”
These beliefs aren’t just cognitive—they’re held somatically and emotionally, often outside of conscious awareness. EMDR works by helping the brain safely revisit and reprocess those moments using bilateral stimulation, reducing the emotional charge that keeps them active.​
Eating disorders can serve as protective strategies, especially for those who’ve never felt safe in their body or environment. The behaviours offer a sense of control, relief, or numbness. But that relief comes at a cost—and doesn’t resolve the pain underneath.
That’s where EMDR becomes valuable. It doesn’t aim to fix behaviour directly. Instead, it:
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Helps the nervous system stop reacting as if past danger is still present
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Makes space for the client to reconnect with their body in a safer way
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Softens the emotional intensity of past trauma that fuels shame, perfectionism, or control
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Allows for integration of new, self-compassionate beliefs like “I can care for myself,” or “My body is not the enemy”
This kind of emotional shift often supports more lasting behavioural change—because the root threat is no longer as active.
