EMDR Phase 1: How to Write an EMDR Treatment Plan for PTSD

You’ve got the basics of EMDR processing down, but now you’re realizing something important: you’re not totally sure how to structure an EMDR treatment plan. Don’t worry! Every EMDR clinician hits this moment. Treatment planning in EMDR looks a little different than traditional CBT-style plans, and having a clear structure makes the entire process smoother for you and your clients.

In this guide, you’ll learn how to write an EMDR treatment plan for PTSD, what to include, and how Phases 1 and 2 shape the rest of the work. I’ll also show you where to find downloadable templates and a full step-by-step framework if you want deeper support.

When you’re working on an EMDR treatment plan, the next step usually depends on where you’re getting stuck:

• If you’re unsure how to organize targets into a clear sequence → use a structured target mapping tool (such as the EMDR Target Selection Worksheet)
• If you understand the pieces but want a step-by-step framework → follow a full treatment planning process
• If you’re running into complexity (dissociation, attachment, pacing) → you may need a more advanced approach to preparation and sequencing

Key components for writing an emdr treatment plan

Diagnoses, Goals, Objectives, Interventions

If you bill insurance — or if you give your clients Superbills so they can seek reimbursement — you’ll need to have your client’s diagnosis documented on your EMDR treatment plan. If you work at an agency, you may be required to also document the goals, objectives, and interventions specific to your client’s treatment.

Goals: These are the general outcomes your client is seeking in treatment. Goals could be learning emotion management, improving relationships, or building confidence in setting/maintaining boundaries.

If we were writing an EMDR treatment plan for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), then a goal could be “client’s trauma symptoms will no longer be at a clinical level and they will have improved functioning overall.” The overarching goal is for your client’s symptoms to decrease, or even resolve completely.

Objectives: These are smaller steps that help you achieve the above-stated goal. These are meant to be measurable! Some possible objectives could be “client will be able to identify five stimuli that trigger flashbacks,” or “client will be able to implement self-soothing behaviors when triggered by a trauma stimulus.” Another could be “client’s symptoms of intrusion, avoidance, and alterations in cognition/mood/arousal/reactivity will decrease from 60 to 20 or less as measured by the PCL-5.”

Interventions: Personally, I prefer an EMDR treatment plan to be focused on interventions, because these are the actual methods used to facilitate healing. Also, when you review an EMDR treatment plan with a client, the goals/objectives are typically skipped over, because your client wants to know how you are going to help them feel better.

As EMDR has eight phases, you could conceptualize each phase as a cluster of interventions! Of note — I cluster Phases 3–8 together, as those phases are specific to each EMDR target.

If you and your client are exploring their history but need a more structured way to identify specific EMDR targets, the EMDR Target Selection Client Handout can be used as a client-facing tool to support collaboration. It helps clients reflect on symptoms, associated experiences, and beliefs ahead of or between sessions, so they can bring more organized, clinically relevant information into the work.

For a more structured clinical approach, the EMDR Target Selection: Clinician Guide outlines multiple methods for eliciting and documenting targets in session, including timeline methods, negative belief approaches, and floatback techniques. These approaches shape how targets are defined, organized, and prepared for sequencing.

For example, a negative belief approach tends to elicit clusters of experiences organized around a core cognition, while timeline methods highlight developmental patterns and earlier contributing experiences. Each method produces a different type of clinical map.

The way targets are identified at this stage directly influences how they can be grouped, prioritized, and sequenced in treatment. Target selection establishes the structure that sequencing builds on, which is why clarity at this stage makes the rest of the treatment plan more coherent and clinically meaningful.

Once targets are identified, the next step is organizing them into a clear, clinically meaningful order. The targets you’ve identified through your selection methods can be carried directly into the EMDR Target Sequencing Plan: Clinician Guide, where they are grouped into symptom clusters, organized by themes, and prioritized for processing.

This guide provides a structured method for taking identified targets and organizing them into a clear, clinically meaningful sequencing plan, including how to group targets, determine where to begin, and pace the progression of treatment.

Understanding EMDR Phase 1: History and Treatment Planning

This phase of EMDR is just like all other types of psychotherapy. When first meeting with a client, you need to understand their history and symptoms in order to help them. In EMDR, some additional legwork can really make a difference in the efficiency and effectiveness of your treatment.

Identifying your client’s attachment style can give you a lot of insight into how treatment might progress. I like to use the Relationship Questionnaire by Bartholomew & Horowitz, 1991. A client with a secure attachment style will likely need less preparation than another client with a less healthy attachment style.

It’s paramount that you evaluate the level of dissociation your client is likely to experience. There are some screeners available, such as the Dissociative Experiences Scale. I prefer to screen using the MID-60, which is a shortened version of theMultidimensional Inventory of Dissociation. If, after screening, I find I need to assess further, I like to use the Dissociative Disorders Interview Schedule, though many will also use the Multidimensional Inventory of Dissociation or the SCID-D. You’ll want to evaluate the available assessments and choose the one that best fits your needs.

Developing Your EMDR Treatment Plan

As you collect your client’s history, you’ll begin developing a generalized picture of how treatment will progress. Personally, I don’t ask for detailed descriptions of trauma memories at this stage. Instead, I focus on identifying patterns, themes, and the types of experiences that are contributing to the client’s current symptoms. More detailed information is typically gathered later, after EMDR Phase 2: Preparation, when the client has the resources in place to process those experiences safely.

As this picture becomes clearer, you can begin identifying potential EMDR targets and thinking about how they may be sequenced in treatment. This is where treatment planning in EMDR starts to take shape. Rather than selecting targets randomly, you are organizing them in a way that supports efficient and meaningful processing over time.

EMDR Phase 2: Preparation and Readiness

This phase of EMDR can vary widely from client to client! For some, you can have them ready in 1-2 sessions. Others may take months, or even years. You’ll find that for the clients with more complex PTSD, they are more likely to take months/years. If you’ve found that someone’s attachment style is highly disorganized and/or they dissociate as a primary coping tool, these are the clients who will take longer in EMDR Phase 2: Preparation.‍ ‍Knowing this early can really make a big difference in how you approach treatment with your client.

At minimum, your clients need to be educated on trauma memory storage, the Adaptive Information Processing Model, mechanics of EMDR and common reactions to EMDR. Additionally, your clients need to have skills to draw upon‍ ‍during and in between sessions. At minimum, I like to install a container and calm place. For those needing extended stabilization, additional strategies such as meditation, grounding, and resource development may be helpful. The specific approach will depend on how your client responds to each stabilization procedure.

Beginning Reprocessing and Selecting Targets

Once your client is ready for reprocessing targets, this is when you begin selecting EMDR targets and sequencing them in the most impactful order for processing. This is where treatment planning becomes especially important, because the order in which you approach targets can influence both the efficiency of treatment and how manageable the process feels for your client.

At this stage, rather than choosing targets randomly, you’re looking for patterns across the client’s history. Early experiences that shaped core beliefs, highly distressing events that continue to drive current symptoms, and situations that are easily triggered in the present all become part of the treatment plan. Thoughtful sequencing helps ensure that you are not overwhelming the client while still making meaningful progress.

Returning to the big picture, the general recommendation is to process past events to completion, then address present triggers (such as sounds, smells, or touch), and finally move on to future templates. This structure helps clients resolve the root of their symptoms, reduce current distress, and build confidence in handling similar situations moving forward.

How to Document and Update Treatment Plans

It’s really important to update your treatment plans regularly. I prefer to document the date when each intervention was completed. Additionally, I document progress, barriers, and the rationale for any treatment pivots. For example, if someone experiences a loss, I’ll pivot to grief counseling until it’s appropriate to return to the EMDR plan — documenting this both in progress notes and under the “treatment update” section.

For therapists who want a more structured approach to EMDR treatment planning

If you want a more structured way to move from identifying targets to building a complete EMDR treatment plan, here are the next steps depending on what you need:

• If you want tools to help identify and organize targets → start with the Core EMDR Target Selection & Sequencing Toolkit
• If you want a centralized place to access EMDR treatment planning tools, examples, and guidance → explore the EMDR Treatment Planning Hub
• If you want a step-by-step clinical framework for applying this in practice, including complex cases → explore the EMDR Treatment Planning: Target Selection and Sequencing course

Sample EMDR Master Treatment Plan for PTSD

I hope this walkthrough was helpful! The intention was to give you enough information to apply this to your agency or practice — as well as your own style in designing a treatment plan. Below is my generalized example of a Sample EMDR Master Treatment Plan for PTSD.