EMDR templates in Rivet

If you run EMDR, Rivet includes four worksheets that match the structure of Shapiro’s 8-phase protocol. They live alongside the EMDR Workspace (the bilateral-stimulation surface) and capture the clinical content you’d otherwise write longhand into a session note. These pages are about the templates — the structured forms. The bilateral stimulation itself — visual, auditory, speed controls, the dual-task prompts — is documented in the EMDR section.

​

The four templates

​

How the templates map to Shapiro’s 8 phases

Phases 4 and 5 don’t have a dedicated worksheet because the clinical work is the BLS itself — you run the sets in the Workspace and capture VOC and SUDS as you go. The Body scan and Future template worksheets pick up at the points where the structured clinical content is back in scope.

​

When the calm place and container do double duty

Both Phase 2 resources are used outside Phase 2. The calm place is the go-to closure tool when a processing session runs out of time before the target is desensitized. The container is the standard closure step at the end of every processing session — it gives the client a place to put whatever surfaced and didn’t finish. You don’t need a separate template instance for the closure use. Open the worksheet that was used to install the resource originally, review the cue word and the install record, and run the closure conversation from there. The Workspace handles the BLS.

​

How to launch a template into a session

The four EMDR templates appear in the templates picker under EMDR. Open them from:

• In a video session — the templates pane on the right of the Workspace shows your most-used templates first. Pin the EMDR ones the first time you open them.
• From a session note — the Insert template button auto-fills structured fields into the note.
• As a worksheet for the client — if you want the client to fill in the sensory detail for the calm place before the next session, send them the worksheet link. (Container and body scan are practitioner- administered; future template is collaborative.)

​

Citations

The four templates are modeled on:

• Shapiro, F. (1995, 2001, 2018). Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy: Basic Principles, Protocols, and Procedures. Guilford Press.
• Daniels, N. — calm/safe place protocol attribution (Shapiro 1995, Phase 2).
• Wildwind, L. (1998). Container protocol attribution.
• Murray, K. (2011). “Container.” Journal of EMDR Practice and Research, 5(1): 29–32.

Rivet uses its own field labels — the clinical method is published and in widespread use, the specific Shapiro scripts are not reproduced. The templates are designed for EMDR-trained clinicians; Rivet doesn’t provide EMDR training.

​

Related articles