EMDR
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing has a strong trial base for PTSD and is endorsed by the WHO, the American Psychological Association, and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. (There's ongoing academic debate about whether the eye movements themselves add anything beyond exposure — but its effectiveness for PTSD is well established.)
- Who it tends to fit
- People with specific traumatic memories that still feel vivid and charged; often faster than open-ended talk therapy for single-incident trauma.
- Who it may not fit
- Some people with complex or developmental trauma need capacity-building and stabilization first; a good EMDR therapist will pace for that.
- Cost & access
- $100–250 per session; EMDRIA-listed therapists are licensed clinicians.
- Credentials
- Practitioners are licensed clinicians
EMDR is the most strongly evidenced approach in this directory for post-traumatic stress. You bring to mind a distressing memory while the therapist guides sets of side-to-side eye movements (or taps, or tones) — a process thought to help the brain reprocess a memory that got “stuck” in a raw, unfiled state, so it can settle into the past where it belongs.
It’s more structured than open-ended talk therapy, and often works over a defined number of sessions rather than indefinitely. Because it deliberately approaches charged material, a well-trained EMDR therapist spends real time on safety and resourcing first — which is exactly the pacing this whole site keeps coming back to.
Free first steps
- EMDRIA's own plain-language explainers of what a session involves
Last reviewed 2026-07-04. Official practitioner directory: www.emdria.org.