Can You Do EMDR on Yourself?

EMDR is one of the most common and effective forms of trauma therapy available. Known for its use of eye movements, it’s a seemingly easy way to reprocess trauma – after all, it’s just moving your eyes back and forth, right?

Well, not exactly. EMDR follows a complex, eight-stage protocol that can take years to master. And while there’s some research that suggests you can perform EMDR on yourself, I’d strongly advise against it. Here are three reasons why I think it’s better to not do EMDR on yourself.

You Could Retraumatize Yourself

Good EMDR begins before you reprocess your trauma. One of the first stages of EMDR is Phase 2 – Preparation. During the Preparation phase, you learn lots of coping skills you can use to manage your distress. These skills are helpful both in and out of session, but they are especially important when reprocessing trauma.

Why? These coping skills help you stay within the “window of tolerance.” This imaginary “window” is a way of describing feeling calm and safe. Too much distress can make you exit the window, pushing you into fight, flight, or freeze mode.

Reprocessing trauma isn’t always comfortable, but it shouldn’t be so intense that you exit the window of tolerance. If you do, you risk experiencing all the negative thoughts, emotions, and body sensations you felt during the trauma again.

One of the main risks doing EMDR on yourself poses is that you don’t have a therapist to teach you coping skills or to help you use them during EMDR, which can be a recipe for disaster.

Revisiting trauma without the right skills is like going into battle without armor. It’s always wiser and safer to be equipped before doing EMDR, something that almost always requires a trained professional.

You Can’t Be Fully Immersed in Reprocessing

One of the most important parts of EMDR is stepping back and letting your brain naturally heal itself. Your job is simply to step back and notice what’s happening to your thoughts and emotions as well as in your body. In large part, you get to be a passive observer, which is exactly what needs to happen for EMDR to work.

In contrast, a good EMDR therapist has a lot going on internally. They’re observing the client’s reactions, deciding when to pause eye movements, thinking about ways to help reprocessing continue – it’s anything but passive for the provider.

One of the risks you run by doing EMDR on yourself is that you can’t be fully immersed in reprocessing. Think about it this way – if you’re trying to watch a movie while beating someone in a chess game, your attention will have to be given to one task or the other. There’s simply no way you can fully devote yourself to reprocessing while facilitating EMDR.

Not being immersed in reprocessing will be fruitless at best. It’s better to let an expert facilitate EMDR so you can be fully focused on healing.

You Don’t Build a Therapeutic Relationship

There is a plethora of research showing that healthy relationships can help someone heal from trauma. One relationship that can be especially helpful is the one you have with your therapist.

Seeing a therapist gives you the opportunity to receive support and care that is crucial for healing from trauma. It also gives you the chance to practice using healthy communication skills and being vulnerable with your emotions.

Trying to resolve trauma by doing EMDR on yourself means you won’t receive any of the many benefits that come from a therapeutic relationship. These benefits extend well beyond EMDR and are sometimes even more important than EMDR itself.

So, can you do EMDR on yourself? You might be able to, but I think most therapists would agree that it’s better to have a trained professional help you along the way.