Made Simple:
EMDR & Spirituality

In one sentence: Adopting a heart-led spiritual approach throughout all stages of EMDR therapy can help clients process trauma, break maladaptive behavior cycles, and bring more peace and authenticity into their lives.

In one paragraph: Psychotherapy translates to ‘healing of the soul.’ A transpersonal/spiritual approach supports clients to explore existential aspects of life by addressing fundamental questions concerning meaning and identity such as ‘who or what am I?’. A transpersonal therapist works with authenticity and an open heart and soul, never viewing their client as fundamentally different from themselves. This approach creates strong therapeutic relationships, empowering the client to explore their own authenticity and inner presence in a peaceful, safe, and containing space. Such a heart-led spiritual approach has been transformational not only for my clinical work but also for my personal life.

What is Spirituality?

While there is no universally agreed-upon definition, spirituality generally encompasses qualities such as compassion, bliss, joy, and unconditional love—even during challenging or traumatic moments. I favour Sulmasy’s (2002, pg.25) definition, as it is very inclusive:

...an individual’s or a group’s relationship with the transcendent, however that may be construed. Spirituality is about the search for transcendent meaning. Most people express their spirituality in religious practice. Others express their spirituality exclusively in their relationship with nature, music, the arts, or a set of philosophical beliefs or relationships with friends and family.

The Role of the Heart in Spirituality

The function of the heart has been a curiosity to Eastern and Western traditions for thousands of years. Even as far back as the 4^th century BC, Aristotle recognised the significance of the heart, describing it as…

The seat of the soul and the control of voluntary movement—in fact, of all nervous functions in general—are to be sought in the heart. The brain is an organ of minor importance.

This enduring significance of the heart can be integrated into EMDR therapy through heart-led psychotherapy (HLP), enabling clients to form and deepen their connection with their hearts. The inner wisdom they receive can inform their choices and guide them into alignment with their authentic selves, enabling transformational and multidimensional healing.

What is Heart-Led Psychotherapy?

HLP provides a working model as part of a BioPsychoSocioSpiritual approach to treating psychological distress, and it can be used with anyone regardless of their spiritual beliefs. HLP asserts that everyone is on an individual life journey, the purpose of which is to understand and experience life lessons (such as assertiveness, joy, and forgiveness). However, when clients experience distress, blockages and repeated patterns of behaviour can result, causing subsequent psychological distress.

In HLP, it is suggested that the ego maintains psychological distress because it causes clients to feel that they are victims, powerless and fearful—and thus prevents them from breaking out of these negative cycles. Using mindfulness techniques, HLP teaches clients how to become observers of their difficulties in order to identify and understand life lessons. In this process, clients learn to honour what feels right from the ‘heart’ or the ‘heart and soul’ rather than the ego, so they may make new choices in keeping with their authentic selves. When clients honour their authentic selves, they can lead lives of peace and grace rather than pain and suffering. Sometimes this process requires taking ‘leaps of faith.’

Transpersonal/Spiritually-Informed EMDR

Over the past 30 years, several EMDR therapists have recognised how a spiritual component can be applied when using EMDR. Below are some suggestions of how you may consider integrating a spiritual approach into your EMDR sessions:

Phase 1 (History Taking)

• Complete a comprehensive client history to identify challenges and traumas, blocks and restrictions (such as ongoing core negative beliefs and emotions), and repeated patterns of behaviour that maintain psychological distress.
• Explore the client’s understanding of spirituality and identify any resources or practices they use, such as yoga, meditation, prayer, nature, or art.

Phase 2 (Preparation)

While explaining the EMDR therapy process to the client, begin incorporating other spiritual resources, such as:

• Connections with spiritual figures
• Peaceful/spiritual places
• HLP and its application to everyday situations
• Resource Development and Installation (RDI) (Korn & Leeds, 2002)
• Meditations and techniques, such as:
  1. Light stream meditation
  2. Mindful breathing
  3. Heart meditations
  4. Heart coherence (using heart meditations)
• Heart-based and/or spiritual affirmations

Phase 3 to 8 (Assessment through Reevaluation)

• Identify whether negative cognition (NC) and positive/preferred cognitions (PC) have a spiritual component, such as…
  • NC: ‘I do not trust my heart/soul.’
  • PC: ‘I am learning to trust/honour my heart/soul.’
• Adopt a heart-led and spiritual approach during processing, such as:
  1. Asking the client to connect to their heart area when they appear stuck in egoic thinking.
  2. Connecting into the heart area, asking what life lesson the trauma may be helping them understand.
  3. Sending healing love and light from their heart to others to facilitate inter-generational and ancestral healing.
  4. Connecting with spiritual resources.
• Install heart-led positive/preferred beliefs at the end of incomplete and complete sessions.
• Learn how to manage future challenges by making heart-led choices in keeping with their authenticity.

Finally, remember we are all each other’s mirrors in life. Your clients are also your teachers and will highlight areas within you that may still need healing. Be prepared to explore this outside of sessions and as you become more aligned with your heart and authenticity, this will be reflected back not just in your work, but in all areas of your life.

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Curious to learn more? Check out Alexandra’s new book Using Spirituality in EMDR Therapy which includes practical resources, exercises, scripts and strategies to work spiritually with clients and to help them live a more authentic, heart-led life—check it out here.