EMDR has its own working vocabulary, and it's dense with acronyms. Whether you're training, refreshing, or explaining the process to a client, here is the core terminology defined plainly. The terms are grouped by where they show up in the work.
The model
AIP (Adaptive Information Processing) — the theory underneath EMDR. The brain has a natural system for metabolizing experience; when an event overwhelms it, the memory is stored raw and state-dependent, and that unprocessed memory drives present-day symptoms.
The measures
SUD (Subjective Units of Disturbance) — a 0–10 rating of how disturbing a target feels right now. The compass for desensitization; you want it falling toward 0.
VOC (Validity of Cognition) — a 1–7 rating of how true a positive belief feels in the body. The compass for installation; you want it rising toward 7.
The target components
Negative Cognition (NC) — the present-tense, irrational self-belief attached to the memory: I'm powerless, I'm not safe, it's my fault. It must be the client's, not the clinician's.
Positive Cognition (PC) — the adaptive belief the client would rather hold, strengthened in Phase 5.
Touchstone — the earliest memory that installed the negative belief. Reprocessing it often collapses the charge on everything downstream.
What happens during reprocessing
Dual Attention — attending to the memory and the bilateral stimulation simultaneously.
Bilateral Stimulation (BLS) — alternating left-right input: eye movements, tones, or taps. See the full bilateral stimulation guide.
Channel — an associative chain of linked material that opens as one association leads to the next.
Blocking Belief — a hidden cognition that stalls processing until it's surfaced and addressed.
Cognitive Interweave — a small, deliberate clinician input that restarts looped or stalled processing.
Abreaction — an intense emotional or somatic release during reprocessing, held with clinician support and Phase 2 resources.
Planning terms
Target Sequence Plan (TSP) — the Phase 1 map clustering symptoms by negative cognition and ordering targets across past, present, and future.
Future Template — a rehearsed desired response to an anticipated situation, installed to carry gains forward.
The vocabulary isn't decoration. Each term marks a decision point in the protocol — which is why sloppy use of the words tends to travel with sloppy use of the method.
For the terms in their natural habitat, walk the phases starting at Phase 1, or step back to What Is EMDR.
For clinicians
Put the vocabulary to work
Rewire speaks the same language your practice does — SUD tracking, resourcing, check-ins — so the terms below show up as tools your clients actually use.
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