Telehealth therapy has been on the rise ever since COVID showed us that we can do therapy and stay connected virtually. There are some types of therapy that have both clinicians and clients wondering if they can be done successfully and ethically via Telehealth. EMDR is one of these.
EMDR, or eye movement decensitization and repossing, has been one of the leading therapies for trauma over the last few decades – and for good reason! EMDR has shown research proven results and has helped millions change their lives for the better.
Below I will give the top three reasons why EMDR can be done virtually while also adding some follow-up questions to keep in mind.
1. You can still connect with another human being via telehealth therapy. This is really important to keep in mind with doing EMDR virtually because knowing and trusting that you have another presence there to help you hold compassionate space and move through the trauma is important. And for some people, it may make them feel more safe because there is the physical barrier of not being in person while also having the safety of having another person on the end of the line. That may feel less intimidating to some.
2. You can still do bilateral stimulation virtually. For those of you who are new to EMDR, bilateral stimulation is a tool used in the reprocessing phase of EMDR that is a way to activate both left and right sides of the brain. This is achieved through either sound, eye movements, or tapping. This can be done virtually by having the client listen to auditory sounds, watch bilateral stimulation on their mobile device or computer, or do physical tapping on themselves.
3. Every part of EMDR (apart from bilateral stimulation, spoken about in #2) can easily be done virtually. There’s the resourcing phase which is basically making sure that the persons nervous system is ready to do the work. There is information gathering stage which needs to be done in any therapy setting and can easily be done via Telehealth. There needs to be a good amount of information given on how the process looks, gathering past traumatic memories that the person wants to re-process, the reprocessing phase, etc. All of the stages can easily be done virtually.
Some questions to keep in mind are…
Do you trust your therapist? Are you ready to do deep trauma work? What support do you have set up in your life? How are you going to handle getting triggered? Do you have the finances or resources to be able to stick with an EMDR and your therapist for as long as it takes to get through? What would a successful outcome look like for you?
These are important questions to ask yourself whether you were doing EMDR in person or virtually.
If you have any more questions about virtual EMDR please reach out via the Metta Holistic Therapy contact page or email me directly at reneeminxtherapy@gmail.com
Thanks so much for reading until the end and hope you enjoyed it!🌞

Metta Holistic Therapy 