EMDR Hypnosis Integration: How the Combination Works

Some EMDR-trained clinicians also train in clinical hypnosis and blend the two. Most often, hypnosis builds calm and coping skills before EMDR reprocessing begins. Some advanced protocols interweave the two carefully for complex dissociation. It’s a specialized, therapist-led practice backed by case-based clinical literature, not a casual add-on or a do-it-yourself technique.

Maybe a therapist mentioned training in both and asked if you wanted to combine them. Maybe EMDR and hypnosis have each helped you before, and you’re wondering if using them together would help more. Either way, “integration” means something more specific than either practice alone. It’s also a different question from whether EMDR is a form of hypnosis (it isn’t) — this page picks up from there.

What does “combining EMDR and hypnosis” actually mean?

In the research literature, integration usually means one clinician, trained separately in EMDR and in clinical hypnosis, weaving hypnotic techniques into specific points of an EMDR treatment plan. It isn’t two therapies running side by side. And it isn’t something a single-modality therapist can do safely without extra training.

Approach	What it looks like	Who’s involved
Hypnotic ego-strengthening first	Hypnosis builds calm, confidence, and coping skills before a memory is reprocessed with EMDR	One therapist trained in both
Hypnosis interwoven during processing	Hypnotic techniques help access or steady difficult material while EMDR’s bilateral stimulation does the reprocessing	One therapist trained in both
Specialized dissociation protocols	Advanced, phase-by-phase interweaving built for dissociative identity disorder (DID) and similar presentations	A clinician with advanced training in both hypnosis and ego-state work
Sequential or concurrent care	An EMDR therapist and a separate hypnotherapist, working one after another or at the same time	Two providers, coordinating
Self-hypnosis alongside self-guided BLS	Two separate relaxation habits used back-to-back for everyday stress, not a clinical protocol	You, on your own

The first three rows are therapist-delivered, blended work. The fourth is a practical fallback for when one clinician doesn’t cover both. The last is what most people can actually try themselves, covered further down.

Why would a therapist combine the two?

Two ideas repeat throughout this literature. The first treats hypnosis as preparation. Psychologist Maggie Phillips describes using hypnotic ego-strengthening, techniques for building calm and confidence, to widen a client’s capacity before EMDR reprocessing begins.

In practice that can mean strengthening a mental safe-place image, rehearsing a coping response in advance, or building a steadier sense of control before touching a raw memory. Phillips points to dissociation, personality-disorder features, or high anxiety layered on top of trauma as cases where this groundwork matters most (Phillips, 2001).

The second treats hypnosis and EMDR as reciprocal partners, not just a warm-up act. One paper describes hypnosis serving two jobs at once: helping a client access traumatic material that feels out of reach, and helping them tolerate processing it once EMDR’s bilateral stimulation begins (Beere, Simon & Welch, 2001). A later paper puts it more simply: hypnosis enhances accessibility, EMDR enhances reprocessing, and the two lean on each other (Fine, 2010).

Neither field treats this as fringe. The EMDR International Association and the American Society of Clinical Hypnosis have each taught continuing-education courses specifically on integrating the two (EMDRIA; ASCH). Both are clear, though, that this is specialized training layered on top of a standard credential, not a natural extension of either one alone.

What if your therapist isn’t trained in both?

Most EMDR therapists aren’t also certified in clinical hypnosis, and most hypnotherapists aren’t EMDR-trained. Blended integration by one clinician is the exception, not the rule, and it’s not something to ask a general therapist to improvise.

The common fallback is what EMDR’s professional association calls concurrent care: your EMDR therapist and a separate hypnotherapist both working with you, ideally on clearly distinct parts of the picture, with your consent for them to coordinate (EMDRIA, 2025). That’s two separate providers staying in touch, not one clinician interweaving techniques inside a single session.

A sequential version works too: finishing a course of one before starting the other, in either order. That’s often easier to manage than two ongoing relationships at once, especially if cost or scheduling make juggling both providers hard to sustain.

Whichever version fits, the same rule applies either way: your providers should know about each other, agree on what each is treating, and check in periodically. Skip that, and you risk covering the same ground twice or picking up mixed guidance from each side. Our page on using EMDR alongside talk therapy walks through that coordination in more depth for the broader version of this question.

What does the research say about EMDR-hypnosis integration?

Most writing on the blended, single-clinician version of this combination traces back to one source: a 2001 special issue of the American Journal of Clinical Hypnosis, devoted entirely to pairing hypnosis with EMDR. The papers above come from it, along with the Wreathing Protocol for dissociative identity disorder, covered next. A handful of later case reports, including Fine’s 2010 paper on adults abused as children, have built on it since.

Worth saying plainly: this is clinical theory and case material, not a body of randomized trials. Nobody has run a large trial comparing EMDR-hypnosis integration against EMDR alone. That puts the combined approach in a different evidence tier than EMDR by itself, which already carries its own guideline-level backing as a standalone treatment.

None of this means integration doesn’t help. Case-based clinical literature is a real, if lighter, form of evidence. It just means “decades of research” oversells where things currently stand.

What are the risks of combining EMDR and hypnosis?

The clearest risk involves dissociation. The Wreathing Protocol, developed by psychologist Catherine Fine and a colleague, interweaves hypnosis and EMDR carefully, phase by phase. It was built specifically to avoid overwhelming someone whose mind already copes through dissociation, separating experience into parts.

The original description is explicit that it calls for a clinician already skilled in advanced hypnosis and ego-state work, not a general EMDR or hypnosis credential alone. Done casually, interweaving the two could plausibly work against that goal.

The second risk involves memory itself. Hypnosis relies on suggestion, and suggestion has a documented link to false memory. A well-known 1992 study in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology tested people high and low in hypnotizability, how readily someone enters a hypnotic state, on a memory task seeded with false details. Being highly hypnotizable, not hypnosis itself, predicted who later reported those false details as real (Barnier & McConkey, 1992).

EMDR’s own field has separately pushed back on false-memory concerns aimed at EMDR alone. Its argument: EMDR doesn’t depend on a clinician’s suggestions the way hypnosis can (Callus et al., 2024). Layer a suggestion-based technique on top, though, and that reassurance applies less cleanly. It’s a real, manageable reason integration protocols insist on specialized training instead of treating hypnosis as an interchangeable add-on.

What should you ask a therapist who suggests combining them?

A short list, worth having answers to before you start:

1. Are you separately trained and credentialed in both EMDR and clinical hypnosis? Familiarity with one doesn’t cover the other.
2. What’s the specific reason you’d add hypnosis for me? Resourcing, easier access to a memory, and dissociation support call for different skill levels.
3. How will we know it’s working, and what happens if I feel worse instead of steadier?
4. Would EMDR or hypnosis alone reasonably do the job first?

None of these questions are awkward to ask. A therapist offering this combination should welcome them.

Can you combine self-hypnosis and self-guided bilateral stimulation on your own?

That’s a different, much simpler question. For everyday stress, yes.

Self-hypnosis is a real, teachable skill people already use for easing into sleep, calming pre-event nerves, or curbing a habit. Self-guided bilateral stimulation, the core technique behind EMDR, is simple enough to practice alone too, since it doesn’t depend on anyone else’s suggestion. Nothing stops you from using a calming self-hypnosis-style routine before or after a bilateral-stimulation session, the same way you might pair it with slow breathing.

That’s two separate self-care habits, not the clinical integration described above. It isn’t resourcing inside a structured treatment plan, and it isn’t a Wreathing-style interweave for dissociation. For a specific traumatic memory or a dissociative response, the research above points toward a clinician trained in both, not a solo combination.

EmEase, a self-guided EMDR app, guides the bilateral-stimulation half of that with visual and audio patterns at app.emease.com. It’s a wellness practice inspired by EMDR therapy, built for everyday stress rather than the specialized clinical integration this page describes.

The bottom line

Combining EMDR and hypnosis is a real, specialized practice. It’s backed by focused, case-based literature rather than large trials, but recognized enough that EMDRIA and ASCH both teach it as advanced continuing education. It’s built for therapists trained separately in each modality, using them deliberately, hypnosis for capacity or access, EMDR for reprocessing.

It isn’t something to layer together casually, and it isn’t a self-guided technique. Self-hypnosis and self-guided bilateral stimulation can still sit side by side, as two separate everyday tools rather than one combined protocol.

EMDR gets combined with more than hypnosis. See our guide to combining EMDR and CBT for how that pairing works, or EMDR vs hypnotherapy if you’re still weighing the two as separate options rather than a combination.