Why Might a Practitioner Change the Speed of Bilateral Stimulation?

Why Might a Practitioner Change the Speed of Bilateral Stimulation?

Short Answer: A practitioner may change the speed of bilateral stimulation during Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) because the pace is adjustable rather than fixed. Faster stimulation can make the task more attention-demanding, while a slower pace may be easier to follow or fit a different part of the EMDR process. The practitioner may adjust the speed based on how easily you can track the stimulation, what you are working on, and how the processing is unfolding. Research suggests that faster eye movements can place greater demands on working memory, but there is no single speed that has been shown to be best for everyone.

Key Takeaways

• Bilateral stimulation does not have one fixed speed that must be used throughout EMDR.
• A practitioner may increase or decrease the pace depending on the person and the part of the session.
• Faster eye movements generally place greater demands on attention and working memory.
• Slowing the stimulation can make it easier to follow when needed.
• Changing the speed does not automatically mean that anything is wrong with the session.
• Research does not support one universal formula for choosing the ideal speed for every person.

Why Is Bilateral Stimulation Speed Adjustable?

Bilateral stimulation in EMDR may involve:

• Following a visual target from side to side
• Hearing alternating sounds
• Feeling alternating taps

Each of these can be delivered at different speeds.

The purpose is not to reach one required pace. The stimulation is part of a larger process in which you focus on a memory, thought, emotion, image, or body sensation while also attending to another task.

Because people differ in how easily they follow that second task, the speed can be adjusted.

A pace that feels natural and attention-demanding for one person may feel unusually fast or very easy to another.

A Practitioner May Speed It Up to Increase the Attention Demand

One leading explanation for the effects of eye movements in EMDR involves working memory.

Working memory is the limited mental space you use to temporarily hold and work with information.

Recalling a vivid memory uses some of that capacity. Following a moving visual target also uses mental resources.

When both happen at the same time, the two tasks compete for limited working-memory capacity.

Experimental studies have found that faster eye movements can place greater demands on working memory than slower movements. Faster movements have also produced larger reductions in memory vividness and emotionality in some laboratory studies.

For that reason, a practitioner may sometimes increase the speed when the stimulation has become very easy to follow and is requiring little attention.

That does not mean the fastest possible setting is automatically best.

A Practitioner May Slow It Down if the Stimulation Is Hard to Follow

The stimulation still needs to be usable.

If a visual target moves so quickly that you repeatedly lose track of it, reducing the speed can make the task easier to follow.

The point is not to test how quickly your eyes can move.

You need to be able to attend to both:

• The bilateral stimulation
• The memory or other material you are working on

If nearly all your attention is going toward trying to keep up with the moving target, a slower setting may create a more workable balance.

The Speed May Change as the Session Changes

An EMDR session does not necessarily use one stimulation setting from beginning to end.

The focus of the session can shift.

At one point, you may be directly reprocessing a distressing memory. Later, you may be noticing a new association, working with a body sensation, or focusing on something different that emerged during processing.

Because the task has changed, the practitioner may also change how the bilateral stimulation is delivered.

Speed is one of several variables that can be adjusted, along with the type of stimulation and the length of each set.

The pace may also feel different when someone is using EMDR to work with memories connected to anxiety, especially when the level of emotional intensity changes during processing.

Does Faster Always Mean More Effective?

No.

Laboratory studies provide evidence that faster eye movements can tax working memory more strongly than slower movements and can produce larger effects on memory vividness and emotionality under some conditions.

But that does not establish a rule that faster stimulation always produces better EMDR.

There is an important difference between showing that a more demanding task can create a stronger experimental working-memory effect and proving that everyone should use the fastest possible stimulation during treatment.

The stimulation still needs to be something you can follow while remaining engaged with what you are processing.

Can the Speed Be Matched to the Person?

Researchers have explored this idea.

Working-memory theory suggests that an ideal dual-attention task might place enough demand on working memory to compete with the recalled memory without becoming too difficult.

That led researchers to test whether eye-movement speed should be matched to an individual's working-memory capacity.

One study compared slow and fast eye movements in people with different working-memory capacities. Faster movements produced stronger effects overall, but the researchers did not find evidence that tailoring the speed to each person's measured working-memory capacity improved the result.

So although practitioners can adjust speed in response to the session, research has not established a precise formula for calculating the correct setting for each person.

Does the Memory Being Processed Affect the Speed?

It may influence how the practitioner approaches the task, but there is no simple rule such as “more vivid memory equals one specific speed.”

Researchers have tested whether highly vivid memories should be paired with faster eye movements and less vivid memories with slower movements.

A study found that faster eye movements reduced memory vividness and emotionality more than slower movements overall, but the predicted match between the original vividness of the memory and the ideal movement speed was not supported.

This is another reason speed is better understood as an adjustable part of EMDR rather than a mathematical prescription.

Memories connected to stress can also vary in vividness and emotional intensity, which may affect how the bilateral stimulation feels during a session.

Why Might the Same Person Use Different Speeds?

Your response to bilateral stimulation can vary from one session to another.

For example:

• One speed may feel easy to track during one session.
• The same speed may require more attention another day.
• A new memory may feel different from the one you worked on previously.
• A different form of stimulation may be used.
• The focus of the processing may shift during the session itself.

A practitioner can respond to those differences rather than assuming that one setting must remain unchanged every time.

Does the Type of Bilateral Stimulation Affect Speed?

Yes, because eye movements, sounds, and tapping are different sensory tasks.

Research has found that different dual-attention tasks can place different demands on working memory. One study, for example, found that both eye movements and alternating beeps affected negative memories, but eye movements placed greater demands on working memory and produced larger effects in that experiment.

That means a speed that feels appropriate for visual stimulation does not necessarily need to match the exact rhythm used for sounds or tapping.

The goal is not to make all forms of bilateral stimulation numerically identical.

Why Would a Practitioner Change Speed During a Set or Between Sets?

EMDR is responsive to what happens as processing unfolds.

Between sets, a practitioner may notice what you report and then adjust the next set.

For example, the next set might use:

• A somewhat faster pace
• A slower pace
• A different length
• Another form of bilateral stimulation

The adjustment may simply be an attempt to make the dual-attention task more appropriate for what is happening at that point.

Changing the setting is therefore not unusual. It is one of the ways bilateral stimulation can be adapted rather than delivered mechanically.

Does Changing the Speed Mean the Previous Setting Was Wrong?

No.

An adjustment does not mean that the earlier setting failed.

A setting may have been perfectly workable for one part of the session and less useful for another.

EMDR processing changes from moment to moment. Thoughts, memories, emotions, images, and sensations can all shift between sets.

Adjusting the stimulation can simply reflect that changing process.

What About Speed in Self-Guided EMDR?

Speed can also be adjustable in online and self-guided EMDR.

With the Virtual EMDR self-guided program, users can select and adjust available bilateral stimulation settings themselves.

That means the same general principle applies even when a practitioner is not controlling the stimulation directly: the pace does not have to remain fixed simply because you began with one setting.

A useful setting is one that you can follow while still remaining engaged with the material you are working on.

Conclusion

A practitioner may change the speed of bilateral stimulation because EMDR does not require one fixed pace.

Faster eye movements can make the task more attention-demanding, while slower stimulation may be easier to follow or better suited to a different point in the session.

Research supports the idea that speed can influence how strongly eye movements tax working memory, but it does not provide a universal formula for finding the perfect speed for every person.

The practical goal is therefore not to make the stimulation as fast as possible. It is to use a pace that provides an appropriate attention-demanding task while allowing you to stay engaged with the memory, thought, feeling, image, or sensation being processed.