EMDR therapy in New Zealand, online with registered psychologists

What is EMDR therapy?

EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing) is a structured psychological therapy for distressing memories. While you briefly hold a memory in mind, your psychologist guides sets of side-to-side eye movements, taps or tones. Over sessions the memory becomes less vivid and less upsetting, and unhelpful beliefs that formed around it shift. It is recommended in international PTSD guidelines.

How EMDR differs from talk therapy

In most therapy, you talk and your psychologist helps you think differently about what you're describing. EMDR works more directly with the memory itself.

The working theory is that a traumatic memory gets stored in an unprocessed state, with the original images, sensations, emotions and beliefs still wired together. That is why a smell or a sound can drop you straight back into the moment, years later. EMDR asks you to bring up a small piece of that memory while your attention is also held by something rhythmic and external: following your psychologist's fingers or a moving dot on screen, alternating taps, or tones in each ear. This "dual attention" seems to let the brain do what it normally does with ordinary memories: file them as past, connected to what you know now, no longer firing alarms.

Practically, that means three differences you will notice. You don't need to narrate the event in detail; a few words and an image are enough to work with. Sessions are quite structured, with your psychologist checking in briefly between sets rather than holding a conversation. And there is usually little or no homework between sessions beyond looking after yourself and noting what comes up.

EMDR is not hypnosis. You remain fully awake and in control, you can stop at any time, and you will remember everything that happens in the session.

The eight phases of EMDR, in plain language

EMDR follows a standard protocol with eight phases. The eye movements most people associate with EMDR are only one part of it.

1. History and planning. Your psychologist learns about you, what you want help with and what memories or situations are driving your difficulties. Together you decide whether EMDR is a good fit and map out likely targets.
2. Preparation. You learn ways to calm and ground yourself, such as a "safe place" exercise, so that you have reliable tools before any memory work begins. This phase can take one session or many, depending on what you need.
3. Assessment. For the first target memory, you identify a representative image, the negative belief tied to it ("I'm powerless"), the belief you would prefer ("I survived and I'm safe now"), the emotions and where you feel them in your body, and you rate how disturbing it is right now.
4. Desensitisation. You hold the image and belief lightly in mind while following sets of eye movements or taps, usually 20 to 40 seconds each. After each set you briefly say what you noticed; the memory often shifts, links to other memories or loses intensity. This continues until the disturbance rating drops.
5. Installation. The preferred, more accurate belief is strengthened while you think of the original memory, until it feels true rather than hopeful.
6. Body scan. You notice any remaining tension or discomfort in your body connected to the memory, and process that too.
7. Closure. Every session ends with time to settle, whether or not the memory is fully processed, so that you leave steadier than you arrived.
8. Re-evaluation. At the start of the next session you check how the memory feels now and what has happened in between, which guides where to go next.

Phases three to seven are repeated for each memory or situation you decide to target.

What EMDR is used for

EMDR was developed for post-traumatic stress, and that is where the evidence is strongest. It is used for single-event traumas such as a crash, an assault or a frightening medical event, and for complex, repeated trauma from childhood or long relationships, where several memories are targeted over a longer course.

EMDR therapists also use it for other difficulties that have a memory at their root: a phobia that began with a specific incident, grief after a sudden death, anxiety that traces back to a humiliating moment, or the lingering effects of a painful breakup. A major 2020 review concluded that EMDR may be effective for PTSD, but that there was not yet enough good-quality evidence to recommend it for other conditions. We think you deserve to know that. If you come to us with something other than trauma, your psychologist will talk honestly with you about whether EMDR, a different approach such as CBT, or a combination makes most sense.

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What the evidence says

The World Health Organization's 2013 stress-related conditions guideline recommends that adults with PTSD be considered for CBT with a trauma focus or EMDR. NICE guideline NG116 recommends offering EMDR to adults with PTSD who present more than three months after a non-combat trauma, and considering it between one and three months after the trauma if the person prefers it.

A 2020 network meta-analysis in Psychological Medicine, drawing on 90 trials and 20 types of intervention, found EMDR and trauma-focused CBT were the treatments most consistently more effective than a waiting list for adult PTSD, with EMDR showing the largest effects, though the authors cautioned that many of the included trials carried a high risk of bias and only 11 tested EMDR.

A separate 2020 systematic review of 76 randomised trials found a large benefit for EMDR over control conditions, but noted that EMDR's apparent advantage over other therapies disappeared in the most rigorously designed studies, and that study quality overall was too low for firm conclusions. The fair summary is that EMDR is a recommended, well-supported treatment for PTSD, probably comparable to trauma-focused CBT, and that the research base still has room to improve. We don't present it as a miracle, and we don't need to.

Does EMDR work online?

Yes. Online EMDR replaces your psychologist's hand with on-screen bilateral stimulation: a dot that moves from side to side, alternating tones through headphones, or self-administered taps such as the "butterfly hug", where you cross your arms and tap your shoulders alternately. The eight phases are unchanged, and so is the preparation: our psychologists complete stabilisation work and agree a clear plan for managing distress before any processing begins online, exactly as they would in a room.

The research is encouraging. An evaluation of 93 people treated with remote EMDR during the pandemic found statistically significant, clinically meaningful reductions on all measures of trauma, anxiety and depression, with outcomes unrelated to how experienced the therapist was. The authors were careful to note the lack of a control group and the small sample, and called for randomised trials. Our trauma therapy page covers further research on remote trauma-focused treatment.

Online EMDR works best with a stable connection, a screen large enough to follow comfortably (a laptop or tablet rather than a phone, if possible), headphones, and a private room. Your psychologist will test the set-up with you before the first processing session.

How much does EMDR cost in New Zealand?

At Mindwell, EMDR costs the same as any other session: $199 + GST ($228.85 including GST) for 50 minutes, paid when you book. There is no separate EMDR surcharge and no assessment fee beyond the first session itself. A Stripe card-processing fee (2.9% + 60¢) applies at payment, and we need 48 hours' notice to cancel or reschedule.

How many sessions you need depends on what you are treating. A single, recent event may resolve in a handful of sessions after preparation. Complex or childhood trauma usually takes considerably longer because there is more preparation to do and more memories to work through. Your psychologist will give you a realistic estimate after assessment and review it with you as you go.

Many New Zealand health insurers contribute to psychologist fees, often with an annual limit and sometimes requiring a GP referral; we provide receipts, and our health insurance guide explains how to check your policy. Full details are on our fees page.

EMDR and ACC

If the trauma you want to treat is sexual abuse or assault, ACC's Sensitive Claims Service funds therapy with ACC-registered providers at no cost to you, however long ago it happened and whether or not you reported it. Many ACC-registered therapists use EMDR; the EMDRNZ directory lets you filter for therapists who hold ACC registration.

Mindwell is not an ACC provider, so our sessions are self-funded. If ACC funding is available to you, we'd encourage you to explore it first through Safe to talk (0800 044 334, or text 4334) or findsupport.co.nz. Some people still choose private EMDR, because they want a specific psychologist, prefer online sessions or want to start quickly. Both are reasonable paths.

How to check an EMDR therapist's training

Anyone can advertise that they offer EMDR, so it pays to check two things.

First, that the person is a registered health professional. Psychologists must be registered with the New Zealand Psychologists Board, and you can search the public register at psychologistsboard.org.nz. Counsellors and psychotherapists are different professions with their own bodies; our guide explains the differences.

Second, their EMDR training. EMDRNZ, the New Zealand association for EMDR therapists, runs a public directory at emdr.org.nz. All members have completed an EMDR training programme that meets international guidelines, and the directory shows each person's level: EMDR therapist (basic training completed), association member, or Accredited EMDR Practitioner, which requires at least a year of practice, 75 EMDR sessions across 25 or more clients, and 20 hours of supervision. You can filter by online availability and ACC registration. EMDRNZ notes it does not make referrals or vouch for individual practitioners, so use it alongside your own judgement.

EMDR at Mindwell

Candice van der Merwe (Counselling Psychologist, trauma and EMDR), Dan Kerr (Registered Psychologist, trauma, with EMDR at the centre of his trauma work), Katherine Lee (Registered Psychologist, EMDR alongside ACT, CBT and schema therapy) and Sandy Laurenson (Clinical Psychologist, EMDR alongside CBT, DBT and ACT) all include EMDR in their practice. Inge Prince works with trauma, grief and emotional regulation and can help you decide whether EMDR or another approach fits.

You can book directly online without a referral, choosing a psychologist or taking the first available, with first sessions typically within 7 days. Your first session is an ordinary conversation about what has happened and what you want; EMDR processing never starts in a first session. Your information is held confidentially under the Health Information Privacy Code 2020, within the usual limits of confidentiality.

Because every Mindwell session is by video, EMDR is available to adults wherever they live in New Zealand: Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Hamilton, Tauranga, Dunedin, and the many towns and rural areas with no EMDR-trained psychologist nearby.

Related support: Trauma therapy · PTSD and complex PTSD · Phobias · Grief and loss