EMDR 2.0: The Next Level of Trauma Healing (When Traditional EMDR Isn’t Enough)

EMDR 2.0: The Next Level of Trauma Healing (When Traditional EMDR Isn’t Enough)

Speaking of Tools in My Toolbelt

Speaking of tools in my toolbelt, I want to introduce you to a totally different beast: EMDR 2.0. This is an advanced version of EMDR that can reach places traditional EMDR sometimes cannot reach.

I use this approach a lot when people get very activated by a memory, to the point of a full-blown abreaction.

What is an Abreaction?

If you have never heard the term “abreaction,” it is a psychoanalytical word for an intense emotional or physical reaction that happens when a person re-experiences a past traumatic event during therapy. It can look like uncontrollable crying, trembling, intense fear, or even physical pain. It is the mind’s way of releasing pent-up trauma.

However, it is not very safe to push a client through a severe abreaction. It can feel like downright torture and can actually cause re-traumatization. As a therapist, my goal is to help you heal, not to make you relive the worst moments of your life in a way that overwhelms your nervous system. This is exactly when I pull EMDR 2.0 out of my toolbelt.

The immersive multi-sensory experience of EMDR 2.0 - flickering lights, tappers, and headphones all working together

Taxing the Left Brain to Free the Right Brain

With EMDR 2.0, the client does not have to live through the trauma. Instead, you only feel it for a few moments to activate the memory. Once the memory is activated, we immediately go to work taxing the left brain so much that the right brain is forced to let go of the terrible feeling of reliving the trauma.

It is absolutely amazing to see people realize that they can do that, that their brain can switch on a dime!

Left brain taxation causing the right brain to release trauma - the science behind EMDR 2.0

How do we do this? We use what is called “working memory taxation.” Your working memory is like your brain’s temporary scratchpad, and it has a limited capacity. If we overload it with complex tasks while you are briefly holding that traumatic memory, the memory gets “blurred” and loses its emotional charge.

The Weird and Wonderful Process

This is where things get a little weird, and honestly, kind of fun. While you are briefly focusing on the memory, I will have you do a bunch of distracting things all at once.

I use a light bar with flickering lights, changing from slow to fast sequences. You will wear headphones with loud and soft sounds, clicking, and beeping. You will hold tappers in your hands that vibrate. And while all of this sensory input is happening, I control it all from an iPad and ask you to do strange cognitive tasks.

Therapist controlling EMDR 2.0 lights, sounds, and tappers from an iPad while the client processes

I might ask you to:

  • Spell your name forwards and backwards
  • Count backwards in 3’s from 99
  • Try your luck at spelling “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious” (yup, I don’t know how to spell it either!)

The point is, the intense concentration required to do these tasks in the midst of all the sensory distractions taxes your left brain in a huge way. Because your working memory is so overloaded trying to figure out math and spelling, it simply does not have the capacity to hold onto the trauma. This causes the right brain to let go of the pain, fear, or sorrow that is stuck there. There is much more to the neuroscience behind it, but you get the gist!

A client experiencing relief and breakthrough after an EMDR 2.0 session

The Science and Research Behind EMDR 2.0

EMDR 2.0 is not just a wild experiment, it is an enhanced, evidence-based adaptation of standard EMDR therapy. It was designed by leading trauma experts Dr. Ad de Jongh and Dr. Suzy Matthijssen in the Netherlands to be more efficient and effective for complex trauma.

Here is what the research tells us:

Intense Working Memory Taxation: While recalling a traumatic memory, clients perform multiple, simultaneous, dual-attention tasks (like the tapping, counting, and complex eye movements I mentioned). This disrupts the memory’s reconsolidation. When the memory is stored back in your brain, it is stripped of its intense emotional and sensory charge.

Enhanced Activation: The approach emphasizes activating traumatic memories thoroughly for just a brief moment, often by encouraging patients to focus on specific, highly disturbing details, before immediately applying the heavy cognitive load.

Flexibility and Customization: EMDR 2.0 is more flexible with the standard eight-phase protocol, allowing for rapid, varied bilateral stimulation tailored to the individual. This means I can adjust the speed, intensity, and type of stimulation in real time based on what your brain needs in that moment.

Faster Results: A 2021 study published in the European Journal of Psychotraumatology found that EMDR 2.0 often requires fewer desensitization sets to achieve the same therapeutic outcomes as standard EMDR. This makes it a highly promising option for clients needing faster or more intensive intervention.

If you have tried traditional EMDR and found it too overwhelming, or if you are carrying trauma that feels too big to touch, EMDR 2.0 might be the key to helping your brain finally let it go.

References

[1] Matthijssen, S. J. M. A., Brouwers, T., van Roozendaal, C., Vuister, T., & de Jongh, A. (2021). The effect of EMDR versus EMDR 2.0 on emotionality and vividness of aversive memories in a non-clinical sample. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 12(1). PMC8462855

[2] Myndful Psychology. (2024). EMDR 2.0: A New Frontier in Trauma Treatment. myndfulpsychology.com.au

[3] Brighter Paths Mental Health. (2025). How EMDR 2.0 Is Supercharging Trauma Healing. mybrighterpaths.com