After your
EMDR session
What you might notice, what to do and how to take care of yourself in the hours and days that follow.
After the session -
What you might notice
EMDR continues working after you leave the session. Your brain is still processing and that’s exactly as it should be. Here is what you might experience in the hours and days that follow.
Relief or lightness
Some people feel a sense of release immediately after a session, as if something that was weighing on them has lifted. That is a sign the processing is working.
Heightened emotions
Your brain continues processing for up to 72 hours after a session. You may feel more sensitive, emotional or reactive than usual. This is normal and temporary.
Fatigue
EMDR is deep work and it can be tiring. You may feel more tired than usual. Give yourself permission to rest. This is your nervous system integrating the work.
Vivid dreams
Dreams related to the session or to your history may surface. This is a positive sign, your brain is continuing to process the material overnight.
New Insights
You may find yourself seeing things differently. A memory, a relationship, a pattern in yourself. These shifts in perspective are part of the healing.
Physical sensations
As the body releases stored tension, you might notice physical discomfort, tightness or soreness. Gentle movement, warmth and rest can all help.
Self-care after EMDR
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Self-care after EMDR *
The most important thing you can do after a session is give yourself permission to be gentle. Your nervous system has done real work today. What follows are tools, some immediate, some to build over time, that can help you settle, ground and integrate.
Regulation skills that actually work
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The Butterfly Hug
Bilateral stimulation, self-soothing
Cross your arms over your chest so your fingertips rest just below your collarbone. Gently tap each side in an alternating rhythm - left, right, left, right. This bilateral stimulation using your own body. It activates both hemispheres of the brain and helps calm the nervous system quickly. You can do this anywhere, anytime things feel too much. -
Intense Sensory Grounding
Grounding, intense sensation
Sometimes the nervous system needs something strong to jolt it back into the present. These aren’t comfort tools, they’re interrupt tools. They work by flooding the senses with something so immediate that the brain can’t stay stuck in the past.Warheads or intensely sour sweets - the shock of extreme sourness pulls the brain into the present moment immediately.
Ice cubes in your hands -
holding ice is intensely physical and present-moment. It gives the nervous system something real to focus on.Cold water on your face or wrists - activates the dive reflex and slows the heart rate almost immediately.
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The Container Exercise
Containment, Distress tolerance
If things are coming up between sessions and you need to set them down for now, the container exercise helps you do exactly that. You imagine a container, strong, secure, whatever feels right, and place the difficult material inside it until you’re back in session and ready to work with it. It’s not avoidance. It’s choosing when to engage.
music for after the session-
Three Playlists for three different needs
Sometimes you don’t need words. You just need something to breathe inside. I’ve put together three playlists, each one for a different place you might find yourself after a session. No sudden changes, nothing that demands anything. Just music that holds you.
Playlist one - When things are activated
When things are loud inside
Slow, instrumental, no surprises. For when your nervous system needs to come down from somewhere high.
Playlist Two - When you feel tender
For tender days
For when you feel soft and a little sad. Music that feels like being understood without having to explain yourself.
Playlist three- when you’re ready to return
Coming back to yourself
Gentle but present. For when you’re starting to feel more like yourself again and want something that meets you there.
when meditation isn’t possible
Watch this when you can’t meditate
When you’re activated, turning inward can sometimes make things worse. Sometimes what you need is something engaging enough to occupy the thinking mind without demanding anything from you. These are genuinely good options.
Bob Ross - The Joy of Painting
Slow, predictable, warm. His voice alone is regulating. You don’t need to paint. Just watch. Available free on Youtube.
LINK: WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Nature Documentaries
Planet Earth, Our Planet, anything narrated by David Attenborough. Gentle, beautiful, absorbing without being demanding.
LINK: WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Slow TV - Norwegian train journeys
Hours of footage from train windows through Norwegian landscapes. Nothing happens. That’s the point.
LINK: WATCH ON YOUTUBE
Mindful Colouring in
Keep a colouring book and a few good pencils around. Your hands are busy, your mind is mildly occupied, and there is no wrong answer. That combination is genuinely regulating.