Is EMDR Consistent with Patristic Thought?
I was recently asked if EMDR is consistent with patristic thought. Excellent question!
My short answer is the good social work answer: It depends.
My slightly longer answer is yes, when administered within the context of the Church as Hospital. However, like anything else in this world, EMDR can lead us away from patristic truth when administered apart from the Church as Hospital.
For a more complete answer, let’s begin by looking at what EMDR is.
EMDR stands for Eye Movement, Desensitization, and Reprocessing. It is an evidence-based therapy, meaning there are peer-reviewed studies and randomized controlled trials showing the efficacy of it as a therapeutic method. These studies show that EMDR effectively reduces symptoms related to depression, anxiety, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), chronic pain, and addiction.[1] The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) gives EMDR the “the strongest recommendation” as a treatment modality for veterans with PTSD.[2] You can find information about EMDR and the science behind it at the EMDR International Association (EMDRIA) webpage.
EMDR uses bilateral stimulation, a simple left-right-left-right movement or sensation, which the therapist administers using one or multiple client senses, for example, by having the client follow a left-right-left-right movement with their eyes, and/or hearing a left-right-left-right sound in their ears through headphones, and/or holding small buzzers that alternately vibrate in each hand. It can even be accomplished by self-tapping with a steady tempo.
While the bilateral stimulation is on-going, the client focuses their mind on an initial distressing scene that is coupled with a negative belief about self. The negative belief about self might be something like, “I’m not safe,” or “I can’t trust anyone.” The client then allows their mind to go where it needs to go, which often involves other memories when they have experienced that same negative belief about self.
Eventually, the client processes through the negative experiences that endorse the negative belief of self, and they come to an adaptive belief of self, such as “I’m safe now,” or “I can learn who to trust.” With this new understanding of self, the distressing events get filed away as something that happened. This frees the client to encounter new situations with the knowledge, but not emotional weight, of the past event(s).
Importantly, the client is fully awake, aware, and in control during this entire process. They are not in a trance or drug-induced altered state of consciousness. Nothing happens without their present awareness and consent. This is a critical point when we look at EMDR, and mental health therapies in general, from the perspective of faith.
As a person of faith, we know God designed our bodies. He designed our brain, nervous system, experience of emotion, and how our body connects to the soul. He knew we would experience distressing things in this world and designed our body to handle it. When we get a cut on our body, He designed our body to heal the cut.
When we have a frightening experience, He designed our body to respond with certain signaling chemicals (hormones) that give us energy to react. He also designed our body to resolve those chemicals and file experiences as memories so the information can be assimilated, and we learn from experiences, positive and negative. Much of this healing work is done as we sleep, during Rapid Eye Movement (REM) when our eyes go left-right-left-right during sleep. Indeed, REM sleep is critical for our mental health.
Sometimes, cuts get infected, and sometimes, distressing experiences don’t get processed as they should. They can remain unprocessed for years, even decades. When this happens, unprocessed memories can distort how we see present situations, such that we find ourselves reacting to a present situation as if it were the past distressing event, like a combat veteran diving for cover when a neighborhood car backfires, or a person bursting into tears when her boss corrects something she has done. Having a more intense reaction to a situation than what that specific situation warrants is a significant clue that there are unprocessed, distressing events underlying one’s reaction.
This is where EMDR helps. EMDR mimics our body’s natural, God-given healing technique to process distressing memories. It doesn’t numb the pain, or make us believe something that isn’t true. It shows us what is true, which is the adaptive shift our body needs to release the distress. The distressing memory gets filed away as something that happened, and we can encounter new situations for what they are, without the distortion of the unprocessed memories getting in the way.
I said it’s important to administer EMDR (and all mental health therapy, really) within the context of the Church as Hospital. Does this mean that EMDR administered by non-Christian therapists to non-Christian clients doesn’t work? No, that’s not what that means. If God brings the sunshine and the rain to everyone, how much more will He bring healing to the non-Christian as well as the Christian?[3] He makes the bodies of our non-Christian friends heal from cuts and bruises, doesn’t He? Of course, He does. Likewise, EMDR provides healing for people of all faiths, and also those of no faith. Faith is not a prerequisite for using EMDR to heal from trauma, anxiety, depression, or addiction, just as faith is not a prerequisite for using surgery to heal from physical injuries sustained in a traumatic event or taking antibiotics to heal from a bacterial infection. The science works because God designed it to work.
Where it becomes important to administer EMDR within the context of Church as Hospital is when we are working with certain very important negative beliefs of self. For example, “I don’t matter,” is a very common negative belief of self that can be healed in EMDR therapy. The opposite, “I do matter,” is the positive cognition that is often the result of that therapy.
It is psychologically healthy and consistent with our faith to know that we matter – we matter enough to God that He knit each one of us in our mother’s wombs and knows how many hairs we have on our heads.[4] He cares for every bird and every blade of grass in all of creation; He feeds them, clothes them, and yet we are of infinitely more value to God than plants and animals.[5] We are made in His image; we each have an icon of Christ within our being.[6] We matter so much to God that Jesus became incarnate, suffered, and died on the cross for us all. Yes, it is absolutely true that each one of us matters to God.
It is also helpful to know that we matter to God, or we risk not respecting ourselves. Saints have taught us through the centuries that if we neglect the image of God within us, then we are no better than animals, and our behavior will quickly prove that to be true.[7] If I don’t matter to God, then what difference does it make if I pollute my body with drugs and promiscuity, or my mind with hatred and pornography? Alternatively, if I don’t matter, I can let myself be walked all over by someone who wants to control me. None of these is healthy for our mental, physical, or spiritual health; they each represent a different way of disrespecting the icon of Christ within oneself.
If I know I matter immeasurably to God, that He made me in His image such that I am an icon of Him, then I will think twice before exposing Christ-in-me to drugs, violence, and hatred. I will stand up for myself and say no to people who want to usurp my free will. I will have much more respect for myself and make healthier choices for myself.
It is very important that we each know in our heart of hearts that “I matter.” It is both true and helpful according to Scripture and patristic understanding. EMDR can help us process through a lifetime of distressing events to this truth.
However, and this is the key, it is also very important that I not allow myself to continue reinforcing the “I matter” until it reaches “Only I matter.” EMDR and mental health therapies in general do not have a built-in stopping mechanism on the “I matter” continuum. They do not have a counterforce to bring us back to center, where “I matter, and so do other people.”
Indeed, many modern therapies encourage us to indulge our desires and embrace our passions without shame or concern for how others are affected by our actions – they just have to get used to the new me. I matter, so I’m going to do what I want to do and everyone else just has to deal with it. With this encouragement from the secular mental health establishment to indulge myself put into practice, it is an easy step to move from “I matter” to “Only I matter.”
This is where the importance of using EMDR and mental health therapy in general within the context of our faith is critical. It is faith that teaches everyone is made in the image of God, not just me or the people who look like me. Jesus commands us to “love your neighbor as yourself.”[8] That means everyone. Further, the Church encourages us to practice prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, the opposite of self-indulgence and engaging our passions. These teachings and practices keep us from processing ourselves into the darkness of narcissism in “Only I matter.”
EMDR works. It will process distressing events behind powerful, deeply held cognitions of self like “I don’t matter” very effectively toward true and helpful cognitions of self like “I matter.” However, left unchecked and with the encouragement to indulge our desires and embrace our passions that is rampant within the secular mental health establishment, EMDR can bring us to the opposite extremes like “Only I matter.” Christ’s commandment to love others as one’s own self and the Church’s encouragement to practice asceticism prevent this descent into narcissism. The Church as Hospital offers the counterforce that prevents us from turning into a society of self-indulgent narcissists.
Thus, EMDR is consistent with patristic thought when administered within the context of Church as Hospital.
[1] “What is EMDR,” accessed April 24, 2006. https://www.emdria.org/about-emdr-therapy/
[2] VA webpage on PTSD, accessed April 24, 2026. https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/treat/txessentials/emdr_pro.asp#:~:text=To%20date%2C%20there%20have%20been,with%20more%20studies%20in%20progress.
[3] Matt 5:45
[4] Psalm 138 (139):13-16 and Luke 12:7
[5] Matt 6:25-34
[6] Gen 1:27
[7] Sts. Maximos the Confessor and St. Gregory Palamas are but two saints who have taught that we are no better than animals when we give in to our passions.
[8] Matt 22:39
This is so interesting--things I took for granted called into question!