After doing the eye movements for a while people experience a moderate or intense recalling of the traumatic event and/or an increase in intensity in how they feel, both of which are processed by the eye movements.

People who have already processed a lot of the emotional content find that their thinking processes become clearer, allowing them to consider new and different perspectives about the event. Others find that it awakens feelings about the event that they may not have been aware of, or not to that degree. Some find that their feelings and thoughts intensify simultaneously.

There is no one way to feel, think, or experience EMDR -- everyone is different and processes their feelings and experiences in their own unique way.

There is usually a difference in how long it takes for different kinds of trauma to be processed. For example, someone who was sexually abused at a very young age, for many years, and on a frequent basis will usually need more time to process their traumtic history than someone who was sexually abused a few times at an older age. Generally, the more trauma there is in someone's history, the longer it will take to process. This can vary depending on such things as whether or not the person had caring and supportive adults in their life while growing up, and whether or not they've already been in therapy before starting EMDR. An EMDR therapist's assessment can give you some indication of what you can expect.

Because EMDR can bring up very painful and traumatic material, it is important that your therapist has experience working with trauma and intense emotions.