These sessions are where the “magic” happens. During these counseling sessions, the client and therapist work together through specific memories, negative beliefs, and emotional focus while participating in bilateral stimulation sets, such as repeated eye movements or gentle touches. During EMDR, you will be asked to focus on a specific negative event. As you do, the EMDR therapist will begin a series of side-to-side eye movements, sounds, or touches.
Focusing on the traumatic event while experiencing bilateral stimulation forces the eyes to move quickly back and forth, allowing the brain to re-process the trauma. The individual is processing the trauma with both hemispheres of the brain stimulated. The chosen positive belief is then installed, through a bilateral movement, to replace the negative one. Usually, each session lasts about an hour.
EMDR is thought to work because “bilateral stimulation” avoids the area of the brain that has become stuck due to trauma and prevents the left side of the brain from calming itself on the right side of the brain. As EMDR solves the problem you're focusing on, you'll have more energy and emotional reserve to deal with people around you. You will be more confident in dealing with others and expressing your opinion, even with people who are difficult to manage like your boss. Depending on what you decide to fix when undergoing EMDR therapy, some or many of the above changes will happen to you.
Usually, during EMDR sessions, there is much less direct interaction with your counselor, because a lot of processing happens internally rather than being processed out loud through a conversation.
