How do you know when EMDR has worked?
Written by the clinical team at The Lyceum Clinic. Clinically reviewed by Sanah Younis, Founder and Clinical Director, BABCP-accredited (no. 1000792). Published 28 October 2026. Last reviewed 28 October 2026.
Clinical perspective: The Lyceum's specialist therapist in EMDR.
Clients describe it as looking at an old photograph rather than watching a live film. The memory used to flood the body with adrenaline. Afterwards they can recall the same facts and their heart rate stays normal. The emotional charge has drained.
The photograph, not the film
That is the phrase clients reach for most often, unprompted. Nothing is deleted. The facts are intact. What changes is that recalling them no longer recruits the body.
What it is not
It is not forgetting, and it is not feeling nothing about what happened. Sadness and anger about a real event are appropriate responses that do not need treating. What treatment removes is the sense that the event is happening now.
For more detail, read about trauma-focused CBT.
Processing continues after the session
For 24 to 48 hours the brain keeps working. Vivid or strange dreams, sudden flashes of emotion and real tiredness are all normal in that window, and they are often part of the change rather than a sign against it.