EMDR and Aphantasia: Adapting Preparation When Clients Cannot Visualize
Many EMDR preparation strategies rely on visualization. Safe place exercises, container exercises, and resource development often ask clients to create or hold an image in mind. For many clients, these interventions work well and become important parts of preparation.
For others, however, the experience is very different. They may understand exactly what the exercise is asking them to do yet report that they cannot see anything internally. As a result, clinicians may begin wondering whether the client is struggling with engagement, dissociation, avoidance, or readiness for trauma processing.
In some cases, the explanation is much simpler. The client may be experiencing aphantasia, a variation in mental imagery in which a person has little or no ability to voluntarily generate visual images. Recognizing this difference can help clinicians adapt preparation strategies so they match how the client naturally processes experience instead of relying on visualization that may never become accessible.
For a broader overview of how preparation fits within EMDR therapy, see EMDR Phase 2: A Clear Guide to the Preparation Process, which reviews stabilization, readiness, and the goals of Phase 2 before trauma processing begins.
Could Aphantasia Be Affecting EMDR Preparation?
Before changing your preparation approach, it can be helpful to identify what is happening when visualization-based interventions are not working:
If a client reports that imagery feels blank, inaccessible, or unclear → Explore whether this reflects a difference in how they naturally process information before assuming resistance, dissociation, or limited readiness.
If a client understands the exercise conceptually but cannot form visual images → Adapt preparation strategies to use somatic, emotional, verbal, or external forms of resourcing instead of imagery.
If preparation feels frustrating despite the client's genuine effort → Evaluate whether the intervention fits the client's processing style before concluding that additional preparation is needed.
If the client regulates effectively without visual imagery → Continue building preparation around the client's strengths rather than trying to develop visualization skills.
These questions help distinguish difficulty with visualization from broader concerns about readiness. A client may have limited or absent mental imagery while still demonstrating the capacities needed to move into EMDR reprocessing.
What Is Aphantasia?
Aphantasia refers to the inability to voluntarily generate mental imagery. Individuals with aphantasia understand concepts such as a safe place, a favorite vacation, or a familiar face, but they do not experience a visual image when asked to picture them. Instead, they may think through words, concepts, emotions, bodily sensations, or other forms of internal experience.
For example, a client may describe a beach accurately without actually seeing one in their mind. They know what the beach is like, but the experience is conceptual rather than visual.
Mental imagery also exists on a spectrum. Some individuals experience little or no imagery, while others describe their images as vague or dim. At the opposite end is hyperphantasia, where mental imagery is exceptionally vivid. Although awareness of aphantasia has increased considerably in recent years, many clients have never considered that their internal experience differs from other people's. Some assume that phrases like "picture this" are simply figures of speech.
For additional information and self-assessment resources, the Aphantasia Network (aphantasia.com) provides educational materials, including the Vividness of Visual Imagery Questionnaire.
How Aphantasia Affects EMDR Preparation
Many preparation strategies commonly taught in EMDR training involve visualization. Safe place exercises, container exercises, and aspects of resource development frequently invite clients to imagine something internally before connecting with feelings of safety, stability, or containment.
When a client cannot generate visual imagery, these exercises may feel confusing or ineffective.
Clients may say:
"I don't see anything."
"It just feels blank."
"I know what you mean, but I can't picture it."
"I don't think I'm doing this correctly."
Without recognizing aphantasia, clinicians may interpret these responses as avoidance, poor engagement, dissociation, or inadequate preparation. In reality, the client may be participating fully while simply accessing experience through a different pathway. Preparation is not failing because the client lacks motivation. The intervention may simply need to be adapted to match how that individual naturally processes information.
A Brief Clinical Perspective
This is something I experience personally. I do not voluntarily visualize. Rather than seeing mental images, I tend to access experiences through conceptual understanding and bodily sensations. I can still engage in EMDR effectively without relying on visual imagery, and that experience has reinforced an important clinical lesson.
Clients do not need to visualize in order to benefit from EMDR. They do, however, need preparation strategies that fit how they naturally access memories, emotions, and internal experience.
Signs a Client May Struggle With Visualization
Clients are often unaware that their experience differs from that of other people, so they may not immediately identify visualization as a difficulty.
Some common indicators include:
Difficulty describing visual details during imagery exercises
Relying on verbal or conceptual descriptions rather than images
Reporting that imagery feels blank or inaccessible
Becoming frustrated when repeatedly asked what they "see"
Responding more readily to questions about emotions, bodily sensations, or thoughts than visual images
Recognizing these patterns early allows clinicians to adjust preparation before clients begin believing they are doing EMDR incorrectly.
Adapting EMDR Preparation Without Visualization
When a client cannot visualize, the goal of preparation does not change. The pathway simply becomes different. EMDR does not require clients to generate visual images. Instead, clients access memory networks in whatever form those experiences have been stored. For some people, memories are primarily visual. For others, they may be experienced through emotions, bodily sensations, thoughts, sounds, movement, or conceptual understanding.
As Francine Shapiro explains, clients access their own subjective experience of a memory. That is one reason EMDR attends to multiple channels of experience rather than relying exclusively on imagery. When a client says, "I don't get a picture," that does not necessarily indicate a problem. A more useful clinical question is: "What do you notice?" That simple shift allows clinicians to follow the client's natural processing style instead of attempting to fit every client into a visualization-based approach.
Expanding Beyond Visual Resourcing
In practice, resourcing can often be adapted in practical, concrete ways that do not require internal imagery.
Clients may:
Describe a place instead of visualizing it
Draw a safe place or container
Bring photographs or videos that evoke calm
Use a meaningful object that represents safety or stability
Work with a literal container, such as a box or jar, during containment exercises
Incorporate pets into grounding and resourcing during telehealth sessions
The objective is not to create a vivid mental picture. The objective is to help the client access regulation, stability, and present orientation using approaches that fit how they naturally process experience.
If you're finding that visualization-based preparation strategies are not working as expected, the EMDR Phase 2 Problem-Solving & Readiness Tool: Adaptations for Resources provides a structured framework for identifying where the difficulty is occurring and selecting alternative preparation strategies based on the client's presentation.
→ EMDR Phase 2 Problem-Solving & Readiness Tool: Adaptations for Resources
Somatic and Sensory-Based Preparation
Many clients with aphantasia naturally access experiences through bodily sensations rather than mental imagery. Instead of asking what they see, clinicians can shift toward questions that help clients notice physical, emotional, or sensory experiences.
For example, you might ask:
"What do you notice in your body right now?"
"What changes when you feel even slightly more grounded?"
"Where do you notice steadiness or ease?"
"What tells you that you're here in the present?"
These clients may naturally rely more on:
Body sensations
Emotional shifts
Physical cues of safety or activation
Movement
Temperature
Pressure
Breathing
Posture
Preparation may involve spending additional time strengthening somatic awareness so the body becomes an anchor for regulation. Many clinicians also find that body scan exercises become particularly valuable because memory networks may be accessed more through physiological experience than visual imagery.
Rethinking Safe Place and Container Exercises
When visualization is not accessible, safe place and container exercises often need to be modified rather than abandoned. Instead of asking clients to picture a calming place, clinicians can invite them to describe what they know about it or notice how they experience it through other channels.
Questions might include:
"What tells you this place feels calming?"
"What sounds would you notice there?"
"What would the temperature feel like?"
"How would your body feel if you were there?"
"What makes this place feel steady or comfortable?"
Some clients benefit from drawing a simple representation of their safe place. Others prefer photographs, videos, maps, or meaningful objects that evoke the same experience without requiring internal visualization. Container exercises can be adapted in similar ways.
Clients might:
Describe what it means to temporarily set something aside.
Draw a container instead of imagining one.
Use physical gestures that represent putting material away.
Write difficult material on paper before placing it into a physical box or envelope.
Use an actual container, such as a jar, box, or folder, during the exercise.
These adaptations preserve the purpose of the intervention while changing the method. The goal remains helping the client develop greater regulation, organization, and a sense of control over difficult material.
Clinical Decision-Making
When working with aphantasia, the primary clinical question is not whether a client can visualize. The question is whether the client has developed the capacities needed to move safely into trauma processing.
For example, can the client:
Regulate emotional activation?
Maintain present orientation?
Use stabilization strategies during activation?
Recognize when distress is increasing?
Return to baseline after becoming activated?
Maintain dual attention during difficult material?
If these capacities are present, limited or absent visual imagery does not necessarily indicate that additional preparation is required.
If these capacities remain inconsistent, clinicians may need to continue strengthening preparation, assess for dissociation, modify pacing, or introduce additional stabilization strategies. The emphasis should remain on matching interventions to the client's presentation rather than repeatedly using techniques that depend on visualization.
When Preparation Still Isn't Working
Difficulty with visualization is only one reason preparation may become challenging. Some clients understand an exercise but cannot access it when emotionally activated. Others experience dissociation, difficulty regulating emotions, limited dual attention, or other barriers that interfere with preparation.
When preparation is not progressing as expected, it can be helpful to step back and identify where the difficulty is occurring before introducing additional interventions. A structured assessment can help clarify whether the challenge involves visualization, regulation, grounding, dissociation, or another preparation capacity.
The EMDR Preparation Capacity Assessment & Stabilization Planning Tool provides a systematic framework for evaluating the skills that support trauma processing. It helps clinicians identify areas of strength, recognize where additional preparation may be needed, and select interventions that match the client's presentation.
→ EMDR Preparation Capacity Assessment & Stabilization Planning Tool
Adapting Preparation Across Different Client Presentations
Aphantasia illustrates a broader principle within EMDR therapy: preparation is most effective when it fits how the client naturally experiences and processes information.
Some clients rely primarily on visual imagery. Others connect more easily through bodily sensations, emotions, movement, language, or conceptual understanding. Effective preparation helps clients access regulation using whichever channels are most available to them.
When clinicians remain flexible, preparation becomes individualized rather than technique driven. This allows clients to develop the capacities needed for trauma processing without requiring every intervention to follow the same format.
Learning More About EMDR Preparation
Adapting preparation for clients with aphantasia is one example of the broader clinical decisions that occur throughout Phase 2. Clinicians also evaluate readiness, pacing, stabilization, dissociation, and how preparation strategies perform under increasing levels of activation.
If you'd like a more comprehensive framework for assessing preparation, adapting interventions, and making treatment planning decisions across different clinical presentations, the EMDR Phase 2: Preparation, Stabilization, and Readiness for Trauma Processing course walks through these concepts in greater depth. The course is self-paced, provides continuing education credit, and includes practical guidance for adapting preparation when standard approaches are not working.
→ EMDR Phase 2: Preparation, Stabilization, and Readiness for Trauma Processing
For additional resources on EMDR preparation, readiness, treatment planning, target selection, and clinical decision-making, visit the EMDR Training & Treatment Hub. The hub brings together clinician guides, free tools, continuing education courses, and practical resources designed to support every phase of EMDR therapy.
→ EMDR Training & Treatment Hub
Conclusion
Aphantasia reminds us that visualization is only one way clients experience internal information. When clinicians recognize that some individuals naturally process memories through sensation, emotion, language, or conceptual understanding, preparation can be adapted without changing its overall purpose.
The goal of Phase 2 has never been to teach clients how to visualize. The goal is to help clients develop sufficient regulation, present orientation, and stability to engage safely in trauma processing. When preparation strategies align with how a client naturally processes experience, they often become more accessible, more effective, and easier to carry into reprocessing.
Flexibility allows clinicians to preserve the purpose of preparation while adapting the method. For clients with aphantasia, those adaptations can create a more individualized and effective pathway into EMDR therapy.
Research References
Milton, F., Fulford, J., Dance, C., Gaddum, J., Heuerman-Williamson, B., Jones, K., Knight, K. F., MacKisack, M., Winlove, C., & Zeman, A. (2021). Behavioral and neural signatures of visual imagery vividness extremes: Aphantasia versus hyperphantasia. Cerebral Cortex Communications, 2(2), tgab035. https://doi.org/10.1093/texcom/tgab035
Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
Zeman, A. (2024). Aphantasia and hyperphantasia: Exploring imagery vividness extremes. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 28(5), 467-480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2024.02.007
