Do you have to talk out loud during EMDR?

Not constantly. With a therapist, you'll get brief check-ins between sets, like being asked what you're noticing now. During the sets themselves you're mostly quiet, tracking the movement or tones while your mind does its own work. Self-guided practice doesn't require narrating anything out loud at all.

What if you can't picture a clear image of the memory?

That's common, and it's fine. Some targets connect more to a feeling or a body sensation than a mental picture. You can work with whatever is clearest, an emotion, a physical sensation, or a single word, rather than forcing a full scene into view.

Is it normal for your mind to jump to a different memory?

Yes. Distressing memories often connect to earlier experiences that carry the same belief, so your mind may follow that thread. That's part of how processing works, not a sign you've gone off track. A therapist can help you follow it safely if it happens in session.

What if your mind goes blank and nothing comes up?

That happens sometimes, and it's normal. Noticing blankness still counts as noticing something. A therapist may adjust the pace or offer a gentle prompt; on your own, you can simply pause, breathe, and try another short round.

Do you think about the same memory for the whole session?

Not necessarily. You start with one target, but your focus may shift between related images, thoughts, or sensations as processing continues. The session ends once distress around the original memory has settled, not on a fixed timer.

What do you think about during self-guided bilateral stimulation?

The same basic pieces, scaled down: a small everyday target, like a tense meeting, plus whatever thought or body sensation comes with it. You track the stimulation, notice what shifts, and stop if anything feels bigger than everyday stress.

What do you think about during EMDR?

During EMDR, you hold a specific target in mind: a memory or image, the negative belief it created about you (“I’m not safe,” “it was my fault”), where you feel it in your body, and a positive belief you’d rather hold. Then you simply notice whatever surfaces next, without trying to steer it.

That’s the short version. Here’s what actually happens at each stage, and why your mind sometimes wanders somewhere you didn’t expect. If you want the fuller picture, including the physical and emotional side of a session, see what does EMDR feel like.

What do you focus on right before the stimulation starts?

Before any eye movements, tones, or taps begin, a therapist walks you through what EMDRIA calls the assessment phase, the third of EMDR’s eight phases. You pick one image that captures the worst moment of the memory, not the whole story. Then you name the negative belief that moment left you with, something like “I’m powerless” or “it was my fault,” along with the positive belief you’d rather hold instead, like “I did the best I could.”

You also locate where you feel it in your body, a tight chest, a knotted stomach, tense shoulders, and rate your distress on a 0-to-10 scale. That cluster, image, belief, emotion, body sensation, is what EMDR calls a target. It’s the specific thing your mind returns to once the stimulation starts, not a vague mood.

What goes through your mind once the stimulation begins?

Once you’re tracking the eye movements, tones, or taps, your attention splits two ways at once. The EMDR Institute calls this dual attention: part of you stays with the disturbing material, part of you stays anchored in the present moment, aware that you’re safe in the room right now. That combination is what lets you process something difficult without being pulled all the way back into it.

Within that, the instruction is simple: notice whatever comes up, and don’t try to force it anywhere. Per EMDRIA, new thoughts, sensations, images, and feelings can surface as these bilateral-stimulation sets continue. You’re not narrating a story out loud. You’re mostly quiet, tracking the rhythm, letting your mind do what it does.

Part of why this works may simply be that it’s demanding. A 2012 paper in the Journal of Experimental Psychopathology by van den Hout and Engelhard proposes that holding a memory in mind while tracking a side-to-side stimulus taxes your working memory. With less mental capacity left over, the memory tends to feel less vivid and less charged. Our explainer on why EMDR uses eye movements covers that mechanism in more depth.

Is it normal for your mind to drift somewhere unexpected?

Yes. You might start with a recent argument and find your mind pulled toward a much older memory that carries the same feeling, even though the two look unrelated on the surface. That’s not a detour: today’s trigger is often linked to an earlier experience that stored the same belief first. Following the thread is part of the process, not a sign you’ve lost the target.

The opposite happens too. Some sessions, your mind goes quiet and nothing obvious comes up. That’s also normal. Noticing blankness still counts as noticing something, and a therapist can adjust the pace rather than treat it as a problem to fix.

What do you think about at the end of a session?

Once the original distress has settled, your focus shifts. In the installation phase, you hold the memory and the new positive belief together while more stimulation strengthens how true it feels. In the body scan, you check yourself head to toe for any tension still attached to the memory. Per the American Psychological Association, stimulation continues until that lingering sensation clears too.

What does this look like in self-guided practice?

Self-guided bilateral stimulation borrows the same basic habit, scaled down. You’re not running the full eight-phase protocol; that depends on a therapist’s judgment about which memories are safe to open. But you can still hold a small, everyday target loosely, a tense meeting, pre-event nerves, and let the same thing happen: notice the thought or sensation, track the rhythm, see what shifts.

EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, runs this same technique through a moving on-screen target or alternating tones you control, at app.emease.com. It’s the guided version of this technique, built for everyday stress rather than deep trauma work. If a target keeps pulling you toward something heavier than everyday material, that’s worth bringing to a professional instead; our answer on whether you can do EMDR on yourself walks through where that line sits.