Just finished your EMDR training? Here's how to run your first real sessions

Your training taught you the eight-phase protocol. What it rarely covers: what you actually do on the Monday morning your first client logs on, which screen you share, where the bilateral stimulation comes from, and how to write up your notes without losing your evening. This guide is about that practical side of your first sessions.

Your first session is preparation, not reprocessing

The biggest surprise for new therapists isn't clinical, it's the pacing. The standard EMDR protocol has eight phases, and the first session focuses on history-taking and treatment planning, not active trauma processing. The urge to "get straight to the eye movements" is normal, but unnecessary.

The preparation phase can take one to several appointments, so plan your first two or three sessions for phases 1 and 2. Tell the client up front what to expect, it lowers their anxiety and protects your pacing. Capture everything (history, target memories, safe place) as you go, so target selection later is a lookup, not a memory test.

Set up your software and room before the client arrives

This is where new therapists lose the most time. Choose your tooling before your first booking. Working online, you need three things at once: a stable video connection, a way to show or play bilateral stimulation, and somewhere to take notes without clicking away from the client's face.

Running those as three separate tools (video + a BLS app + Word) is fragile: screen sharing collides with the stimulation window, and you're jumping between screens during a live activation. An all-in-one platform puts video calling, bilateral stimulation, and notes on one screen. That's why WeMind exists, your attention stays on the client, not the tech.

Bilateral stimulation: what actually happens in the session

New therapists often overthink the mechanics. In practice it's calmer than it sounds.

• Let the client choose the format. Introduce different types, following a light bar with the eyes, holding buzzers that pulse left to right, or listening to alternating tones through headphones and let the client decide which feels most comfortable.

• Keep sets short and check in. After each short set, ask something like "What do you notice now?" The client doesn't need to have a big answer.

  
  

Documentation: capture live, not at night

Note-taking is where the admin load piles up. Capture it during the intake, structured, rather than reconstructing it from memory afterwards. A platform that ties notes to the session and uses AI transcription to take over the typing, saves you hours every week.

In short

• Plan your first sessions for phases 1–2; no reprocessing yet.

• Choose and test your tooling before your first client.

• Let the client pick the BLS format; short sets, check in.

• Capture notes live, not in the evening.