Can you practice EMDR exercises between sessions?

Yes, and many EMDR therapists build it into the plan. Full trauma reprocessing is designed to happen with a clinician present, and unlike some other trauma therapies, EMDR doesn’t formally assign homework. But its own preparation phase teaches portable tools — calm place, the container exercise, the butterfly hug — meant for you to use between sessions.

Maybe your therapist taught you a calming technique last week, and you want to keep using it at home. Or something stressful happened between appointments, and your next session feels too far away. Either way, there’s a real, specific answer here.

What does “between sessions” actually mean in EMDR?

It depends which part of EMDR you mean. The American Psychological Association describes EMDR as different from other trauma-focused treatments in one clear way: it doesn’t build in extended exposure, detailed retelling of the trauma, or homework assignments. That part happens in the room, with a clinician guiding it directly.

But EMDR also has a preparation phase, phase two of its eight-phase structure, where the therapist teaches coping strategies: breathing techniques, imagery, or meditation. Those tools are built to travel with you. EMDRIA, the field’s professional association, also tells clients that some processing may continue after a session ends, so noticing what surfaces afterward is expected, not a warning sign.

So “practicing between sessions” almost always means the stabilization tools, not the memory itself. That distinction matters more than it sounds like it should.

What can you actually practice on your own?

Three EMDR exercises show up again and again in preparation, and all three are built for exactly this moment between sessions.

The calm place. Picture somewhere you feel safe and at ease: the colors, the sounds, how your body feels there. Return to that image whenever stress builds, at home or anywhere else. Our calm place guide walks through building one step by step.

The container exercise. Imagine a strong, secure container — a box, a vault, anything that holds. When a worry won’t quiet down, picture placing it inside and closing the lid until you’re ready to open it again, ideally with your therapist. A 2011 clinical guide by Katy Murray in the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research describes the container as built partly to help clients manage disturbance between sessions, not only during them.

The butterfly hug. Cross your arms over your chest, resting each hand on the opposite upper arm. Tap left, right, left, right in a slow rhythm for 30 to 60 seconds while a mild stress sits loosely in mind. Pause, breathe, and notice what shifted.

This is a form of bilateral stimulation, the rhythmic input at the center of EMDR. One leading explanation for why it helps: holding a stressful thought while tracking a second demanding task, like the tapping rhythm, competes for your limited working memory, according to a 2012 paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology. EMDRIA’s own resource on the technique confirms therapists can teach clients to take it home and use it between sessions, on their own, to ease distress in the moment.

Ask your therapist which of these they’d want you using, and on what. Many EMDR clinicians assign one deliberately; the container especially is sometimes given as homework during preparation, so you may already have your answer.

If you’d rather be guided than keep your own rhythm, EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, delivers the same bilateral stimulation through a moving on-screen target or alternating tones, so you can practice bilateral stimulation on your own time at whatever pace fits between appointments.

What should stay in the therapy room?

Reprocessing the memory itself. That’s the part built to happen with a trained clinician watching how you respond, and stepping in if it becomes too much.

EMDRIA is direct about this: EMDR therapy “should only be offered by properly trained and licensed mental health clinicians,” and the association does not condone do-it-yourself EMDR. The research backs the caution. A 2020 review in BJPsych Open found only one small study of self-administered EMDR for trauma, with mixed results, nowhere near enough to call solo reprocessing safe.

If part of what you’re working through with your therapist traces back to an earlier experience, that reprocessing happens in session, with support built around it. The tools above are the steadying layer underneath that work, useful in their own right, not a way to speed past it alone.

How do you know what’s okay to try?

Match the target to the tool. Everyday stress, a tense meeting, a rough night, nerves before something small, is what the calm place, the container, and the butterfly hug are built for. A specific trauma memory, or anything that spikes your distress and won’t settle, isn’t a between-session solo project.

Is self-guided EMDR safe? goes deeper on where that line sits, and can you do EMDR on yourself? breaks down the technique-versus-therapy split in more detail. If you’re between therapists right now rather than between sessions, EMDR without a therapist covers that instead.

The short version: your therapist already gave you tools built to leave the room. Use them for what they’re for, and save the heavier work for when you’re back in the chair.