EMDR is a Mindfulness-Based Trauma Therapy

EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is essentially a mindfulness-based trauma therapy (see my article: How EMDR Therapy Works).

EMDR is a Mindfulness-Based Trauma Therapy

Both EMDR and mindfulness are present-oriented and nonjudgmental using dual awareness to process disturbing memories. Both down-regulate the sympathetic nervous system (SNS) which reduces the emotional charge and the vividness of the trauma.

Here are the qualities that EMDR and mindfulness share in more detail:

Shared Mechanisms of EMDR and Mindfulness

• Dual Awareness and Waking Memory: EMDR uses bilateral stimulation (BLS) and mindfulness uses attentional anchors, like mindful breathing. Both mechanisms enable the brain's working memory to multitask which strips away the vividness of traumatic memories.

• The "Observer" Stance: EMDR's core prompt, "What are you noticing now?" or instructing the client to "stay to with it" is active mindfulness. It shifts the brain away from identification with trauma and treats thoughts and bodily sensations as transient phenomena.  

• Adaptive Information Processing (AIP): Both practices engage the brain's natural capacity to heal. Just as mindfulness promotes "decentering" (stepping back from negative thoughts), EMDR removes the "splinter" of dysfunctional memory networks so the mind can integrate them adaptively.

Integration in Therapy

• Stabilization: Therapists use evidence-based mindfulness strategies, like grounding and containment exercises to build distress tolerance before dealing with traumatic memories.

• Somatic Awareness: Both frameworks require deep body awareness which helps clients to track physical sensations without spiraling (see my article: The Mind-Body Connection: What is Somatic Awareness?).

Mindfulness exercises for EMDR stabilization (Phase 2) are somatic and sensory tools designed to anchor you in the present, manage distress and prevent emotional flooding before trauma processing begins:

Key EMDR stabilization exercises include:

• Relaxing Place Exercise: You identify a real or an imaginary place that brings you a deep sense of peace.  Then, you focus on vivid sensory details: sight, sound, texture and temperature. EMDR therapists often pair this with bilateral stimulation to neurologically reinforce the feeling of calm and safety (see my article: What is the Relaxing Place Exercise?).

A Relaxing Place Exercise

• The Container Exercise: This exercise helps you to mentally store overwhelming emotions, body sensations and traumatic memories. You picture placing distressing thoughts into a secure container, like a locked chest or vault, closing it and leaving it safely put away until you are ready to process it again with your EMDR therapist.

• The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique: This sensory awareness exercise pulls you out of traumatic memories or dissociation by bringing your focus to the present room. You actively notice: 
• 5 things you can see
• 4 things you can physically feel or touch
• 3 things you can hear
• 2 things you can smell
• 1 thing you can taste

• The Butterfly Hug: This is a self-administered bilateral stimulation technique where you cross your arms over your chest, placing hands on opposite shoulders or collarbones, and giving alternating gentle taps on your right and left sides or focusing on a calm thought to self soothe when you feel triggered (see my article: What is the Butterfly Hug?).

EMDR Butterfly Hug

• Dual Awareness: One Foot in the Present and One Foot in the Past: This is a mindfulness practice where you learn to observe a distressing emotion or memory while simultaneously keeping your awareness on your body in the present moment. You might tell yourself something like, "A memory is coming up, but that happened in the past and I'm safe in this room right now."

Get Help in EMDR Therapy

EMDR therapy is a mindfulness-based therapy to overcome trauma.

Get Help in EMDR Therapy

If you have been unable to work through traumatic memories on your own or in traditional talk therapy, you could benefit from working with a licensed mental health professional who is an EMDR therapist.

Rather than suffering with unresolved trauma, seek help in EMDR therapy so you can free yourself from your traumatic history and live a more fulfilling life.

About Me

I am a licensed New York psychotherapist, hypnotherapist, EMDR, AEDP, EFT (for couples), IFS, Somatic Experiencing and Certified Sex Therapist.

I have helped many individual adults and couples over the years.

To find out more about me, visit my website: Josephine Ferraro, LCSW - NYC Psychotherapist.

To set up a consultation, call me at (917) 742-2624 during business hours or email me.