Target Memory

A target memory is the specific thing you are working on in a given EMDR session — a moment, an image, a belief, a body sensation, or a recurring emotional pattern. It is what your attention rests on while bilateral stimulation is happening. The target is not the whole of what happened to you; it’s a specific entry point that represents the feeling or belief you want to process.

A well-chosen target is concrete, specific, and emotionally alive. “Something bad happened in fourth grade” is too diffuse. “The moment my teacher read my essay out loud as an example of what not to do, and I felt my face go hot” is a target. It has a specific image, a specific body sensation, and a specific belief attached — which is exactly what the processing system needs to work with.

What a target includes

Classic EMDR identifies several components, and self-guided practice uses the same structure:

• The image — the most vivid snapshot of the moment.
• The negative cognition — the belief about yourself that feels most true when you bring the memory up (“I’m not enough,” “I’m unsafe,” “It was my fault”). See negative and positive cognitions.
• The body sensation — where in your body the memory shows up and what it feels like.
• The current distress level — your SUDs rating.

Touchstone memories

A touchstone memory is the earliest or most foundational memory that connects to a pattern of distress you’re working with. Present-day triggers often trace back to a touchstone. Working with the touchstone tends to shift the present-day pattern more deeply than working with the trigger alone.