EMDR 8 Phase Protocol Guide: What Completes Each Phase
Outline
Authored by Dr. Hannah Lin, counseling psychologist trained in CBT, ACT, and IFS, with over a decade of clinical practice across anxiety and complex trauma.
Lena, 41, still grips the wheel on wet on-ramps two winters after a rear-end collision. She can drive surface streets. She asks if you can “just do the eye movements today.” You have fifty minutes and EMDR basic training. If you skip a usable resource, a named target, and a close you can actually finish, you did not run the protocol. You ran stimulation.
This EMDR 8 phase protocol guide is for licensed clinicians who already have training and need the sequence: what to run, in what order, and what completes a phase before you advance. It is not a consumer list of “what to expect in EMDR.” It is not Shapiro scripts. It is not permission to process without consultation.
For readiness, documentation posture, and guideline context, use EMDR basics for therapists. For past-present-future mapping versus one assessed target, use the EMDR target development worksheet. Stay here when the hour question is “which phase am I in, and did it finish?”
Educational content for licensed mental-health clinicians. It is not a protocol manual, not clinical or legal advice, and not a substitute for EMDRIA-approved basic training, consultation, or supervision. Do not run processing from a PDF or a web article.
What an EMDR 8 phase protocol guide is for
Francine Shapiro organized EMDR therapy as eight phases, not as a bilateral trick. EMDRIA’s public description of the eight phases names them as history and treatment planning, preparation, assessment, desensitization, installation, body scan, closure, and reevaluation. The EMDR Institute overview puts treatment planning and readiness before reprocessing. VA/DoD, APA, and NICE materials list EMDR among trauma-focused options for PTSD. None of those sources tell you to open Phase 4 because the client asked for eye movements.
The job of this page is narrower than a basics refresher:
- run the eight phases in order
- know the completion test for the phase you are in
- stop, close, or return instead of advancing on vibes
Phases 1 and 2 can take several sessions. Phases 3 through 7 often sit inside one processing hour, and they still have separate finish lines. Phase 8 opens the next contact. You do not “complete EMDR” because SUD dropped once.
If the honest method today is not EMDR, say so. Brainspotting basics for therapists is a different dual-attunement frame. Schema therapy basics for therapists is a mode-matching hour. Do not bill, consent, or chart one as the other.
Competence gate before you open a target
A phase map is useless if you should not be in reprocessing today.
Scroll the table sideways to view every column
| Gate | Stay in the eight-phase protocol | Stop, stabilize, or refer |
|---|---|---|
| Training | EMDRIA-approved basic training complete, or live consultation named for this hour | Webinar, article, or conference demo only |
| Consent | Client can say yes, pause, or stop for this method and this target | Request for "the eye thing," partner pressure, or vague trauma-work language |
| Window | Client orients, uses a stop signal, and can close with a known resource | Flooding, collapse, loss of orientation, or frozen compliance |
| Risk | No acute safety, intoxication, or unsafe return that processing would worsen | Active crisis, IPV danger, psychosis, or mania that changes the plan |
| Time | Enough minutes left for closure even if the target does not finish | A 15-minute leftover after intake paperwork |
Those columns are different jobs. Training is not consent. Consent is not window. Window is not time. If any row fails, stay in trauma-informed care basics and grounding techniques. Preparation can be the clinical work today.
Run the eight phases in order
Keep this EMDR 8 phase protocol guide next to the hour, not next to a script. Read the table as a completion checklist. Column two is the work. Column three is the finish line. Column four is the most common illegal advance.
Scroll the table sideways to view every column
| Phase | Run this | Complete when | Do not advance if |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 History and plan | History, suitability, resources, risk, and a past-present-future target map | You have a sequenced plan and a reason this client can tolerate processing later | The worst memory is named and you feel ready to stimulate |
| 2 Preparation | Explain the model, current consent, stop signal, and a resource the client can use alone | The client can pause, return to the room, and knows distress may rise | They "already know EMDR" from a video |
| 3 Assessment | One selected target: image, NC, PC, VOC, emotion, SUD, body location | Baselines are recorded for this target, not for the whole trauma history | Bilateral stimulation starts because the story is already vivid |
| 4 Desensitization | Dual attention and BLS while you track channels, orientation, and SUD | SUD 0 or 1, or ecological, and a return to the target stays clean or ecological | The client cried, had an insight, or completed one set |
| 5 Installation | Link the PC to the target and strengthen VOC | VOC 7, or ecological, with the PC still fitting the target | SUD is still high, or the PC is a slogan the client cannot feel |
| 6 Body scan | Hold target plus PC and scan for residual sensation | Body is clear of target-linked disturbance, or residual is ecological | You skip the scan because the numbers already look good |
| 7 Closure | Orient, contain unfinished material, debrief, and plan the gap until next contact | The client can leave oriented, with a between-session plan, complete or not | The clock died and you send them to pickup still activated |
| 8 Reevaluation | Check last target, function, new material, and whether the plan still fits | Previous target is reviewed with current SUD, VOC, body, and life effect | You assume last week low SUD still holds and open a new memory |
Order is load-bearing. You can loop inside a phase. You cannot install a hot target, skip closure because you ran long, or treat Phase 8 as optional administration.
Phases 1 and 2: plan and prepare before you assess
Phase 1 is complete when you can say, in chart language, why EMDR fits this person, which targets are in line, and why processing is not indicated yet if it is not. Suitability includes affect tolerance, current safety, dissociation load, medical issues that change BLS, and what the client returns to after the hour. The three-pronged map (past touchstones, present triggers, future templates) belongs here. Opening the most charged memory because it is “the real trauma” does not complete Phase 1.
Use the EMDR target development worksheet to keep the map on paper without turning history into an activated target. Graphic narrative does not belong in the shared record. Theme, role, and sequence do.
Phase 2 is complete when the client can use a stop signal and at least one resource without you narrating it for them. Calm place, container, and orientation to the room are tools. They are not a personality upgrade. If the resource collapses as soon as you mention the on-ramp, you are still in preparation. Stay there. Teach less. Practice more.
A clean client sentence, if you cannot say it without hedging, you are not in Phase 3:
EMDR uses dual attention: you notice the target and a back-and-forth stimulus while I watch whether you stay in the room. Distress can rise. You can stop. We will close even if the memory is not finished.
Phases 3 to 6: one target, four finish lines
Phase 3 assessment is complete when one target has image, negative cognition, desired positive cognition, VOC, emotion, SUD, and body location. That is a different job from Phase 1 sequencing. Do not collapse them. Do not start BLS because the image is already in the room. The baselines are how you will know later whether the phase finished.
Phase 4 desensitization is complete at SUD 0 or 1, or an ecological rating you can defend (for example, appropriate sadness about a death, not panic). Channels, feeder memories, and protector responses are reasons to stay in Phase 4 or return to preparation. They are not proof you should “push through.” If orientation drops, stop BLS and restabilize. High distress with presence can be processing. High distress with a blank face is not a score to chase.
Phase 5 installation starts only after Phase 4 is complete. VOC 7, or ecological, with a PC that still fits. If the PC now sounds false, do not force it. Check whether a feeder is open, the PC was therapist-authored, or desensitization was incomplete. Installing “I am safe” onto a body that is still at SUD 6 is not hope. It is a skipped phase.
Phase 6 body scan is complete when the client holds the target and the PC and the body is clear of leftover disturbance linked to that target. Residual jaw, gut, or breath that belongs to the target goes back to BLS, not into a mindfulness lecture. Skipping the scan because SUD was 0 is how Monday morning still owns the on-ramp.
Phase 7 and Phase 8: close today, check next time
Phase 7 closure is required in every processing session, complete or incomplete. Complete means the client is oriented, unfinished material is contained, and they know what to do if activation returns before the next hour. Incomplete processing is still EMDR if you close it. Unclosed processing is an aborted hour.
If the target is unfinished, say that plainly. Do not imply they failed. Do not dump a new homework trauma narrative. A between-session plan is containment and noticing, not self-administered BLS in the car.
Phase 8 reevaluation opens the next contact. Complete when you have checked the previous target against current SUD, VOC, body, symptoms, and function. If it held, take the next item on the Phase 1 map. If it slipped, return to the matching phase. New material that showed up between sessions is data for the plan, not an ambush target at minute five.
Scroll the table sideways to view every column
| What you see | Do not do | Return to |
|---|---|---|
| Hour ends with SUD still high | Install the PC anyway | Phase 7 now, Phase 8 next, then Phase 4 |
| VOC stuck below 7 after SUD 0 or 1 | Change the PC to something cheerier | Phase 5, and check for a feeder or a poor PC |
| Body residue after VOC 7 | Call the target done because cognition looks finished | Phase 6, then recheck |
| Flooding, shutdown, or lost orientation mid-set | Longer, faster BLS to "finish the channel" | Stop BLS, Phase 2 resource, Phase 7 |
| Last week SUD is back up at reevaluation | Open a bigger memory to get a win | Phase 8 check, then the phase that actually slipped |
| New present trigger, same network | Abandon the past target mid-protocol | Phase 1 map update, then one target at a time |
A worked sequence, not a movie
The hour was EMDR because the phases were honest. It would not have been EMDR if you had installed “I can handle this road” on a SUD 4 chest so the note would look complete.
That sentence can be handed to a covering clinician. It does not store a graphic scene. It does not claim installation you did not do.
Download the shared trauma and schema pack
The Trauma and Schema Pack sits beside this EMDR 8 phase protocol guide. It is a clinician protocol, not an EMDR manual. Use it to check scope and refer-out, match EMDR eight phases against other trauma frames, run a session card (window, stop, chart stems without graphic detail), and review whether the hour completed, mixed, flooded, or referred.
Email me the trauma and schema pack
Get the scope and refer-out gate, modality match, session card, and after-session review. It does not replace EMDR training.
- Scope and refer-out gate: training, risk, child protection, and consent before any processing hour
- Modality match for Brainspotting, schema modes, TF-CBT PRACTICE, PE hierarchy, and EMDR eight phases
- Shared session card: window of tolerance, stop signals, caregiver presence, and chart stems without graphic detail
- After-session review: complete, mixed, flooded, or referred, plus one between-session dose
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Common misses
Starting in Phase 4. Bilateral stimulation is not the greeting. If history, consent, resource, and baselines are missing, you are not “being efficient.”
Installing an unfinished target. A nicer cognition on a hot body is a skipped finish line.
Skipping the body scan. Cognition can look done while the on-ramp still lives in the chest.
Treating closure as paperwork. If they cannot leave oriented, the phase did not complete, whatever the SUD.
Skipping reevaluation. Last week 0 is a hypothesis. Test it.
Self-administered BLS as homework. Dual attention in an uncontained setting is not a between-session dose.
Calling untrained eye movements “EMDR-informed.” Informed means you know the phases and their limits. It does not mean “we followed a finger.”
Charting a movie. Phase, consent, target label, ratings, window, close, next step. Not the collision in high resolution.
Keep the phase in the thread
An EMDR 8 phase protocol guide has done its job when next week’s note can start from the phase you actually completed, not from a vague “continued trauma work.” Carry SUD and VOC as information, the feeder you did not finish, the close you used, and the Phase 8 question.
The therapist stays with the protocol. Emosapien can hold the phase, the incomplete flag, and the next-target line so the following hour does not open on a blank chart.
Start your journey with Emosapien when you want that continuity sitting beside the session card.
References
- EMDR International Association. Eight phases of EMDR therapy treatment.
- EMDR Institute. What is EMDR?.
- Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
- American Psychological Association. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing for PTSD.
- U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, National Center for PTSD. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for PTSD.
- Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense. (2023). VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
- National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. NICE guideline NG116: Post-traumatic stress disorder.