Table 1.

Overview of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment for children.

EMDR Phases	Description
Phase 1: Client History	It involves history taking, client evaluation, identification of traumatic memories to be targeted, and treatment planning.
Phase 2: Preparation	The client is prepared for treatment, by stabilizing and increasing access to positive affects.
Phase 3: Assessment	The client is guided in accessing the perceptual, cognitive, affective, and somatic components of a specific disturbing memory. The client is asked to identify a preferred self-referential positive cognition and rates how valid it feels using the Validity of Cognition (VOC) scale, where 1 is not true and 7 is completely true (Shapiro, 2001). The client is also asked to rate the level of emotional disturbance using the Subjective Units of Disturbance (SUD) scale, where 0 is no disturbance and 10 is worst possible disturbance.
Phase 4: Desensitization	The client focuses on the memory for about 15–20 s (instead of 30 s as recommended in adults) while simultaneously engaging in therapist-directed bilateral stimulation (in children, especially eye movements or tactile taps), with lengthier sets during abreactions. After each set, the client reports any elicited material, which is then processed during bilateral stimulation, until the SUD score substantially decreases to zero.
Phase 5: Installation	The client is asked to focus on the positive cognition while thinking of the memory and engaging in new sets of bilateral stimulation, until the VOC score is 7.
Phase 6: Body Scan	Any residual physical disturbance associated with the memories are processed until the client reports that the body is clear and free of any disturbance.
Phase 7: Closure	Client’s stability at the completion of an EMDR session and between sessions is ensured.
Phase 8: Reevaluation	It occurs at the beginning of subsequent sessions to check whether results were kept unchanged or needed further reprocessing. In addition to targeting past traumas, EMDR also targets current triggers and related future anxieties.