Practitioner controls

The EMDR Workspace gives you exactly the controls you need to drive the session from the keyboard, the trackpad, or your phone. Nothing more, nothing less.

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Starting a set

Three ways to start the first set:

1. Configure modal → Start Set 1 — sets the configuration and starts the set in one tap.
2. Spacebar — once the Workspace is mounted and you’ve acknowledged the photosensitive epilepsy warning, pressing Space starts or stops the current set.
3. Corner badge — a small floating control in the corner of the screen. Tap to start, tap to stop. This is the universal control — works on mobile, on desktop, with or without a keyboard.

The spacebar handler is input-aware. If your cursor is in a text field, Space behaves normally (typing a space). It only catches Space when no text field is focused.

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Stopping a set

Three ways to stop a set before its countdown reaches zero:

1. Spacebar — same key, toggles to stop.
2. Corner badge — same control, now showing “Stop” with a pulsing countdown.
3. End set button on the practitioner overlay.

When the set ends — either because you stopped it or the countdown ran out — the Workspace automatically transitions to the between-sets card to capture the SUDS.

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Between-sets advancement

This is where Rivet deliberately does less than a generic-timer tool. Rivet does not auto-advance between sets. After a set ends and you capture the SUDS, the next set does not begin automatically when you tap Continue. The Workspace returns to the running state with the practitioner overlay re-mounted, but the BLS itself is stopped. You start the next set explicitly — Space, badge, or Start. This is a clinical decision, not a missing feature. EMDR is not a fixed-interval protocol. The decision to continue, to adjust the rate, to swap to a different dual-task category, to switch a modality off, or to move into closure — that decision is made between every set, not on a timer. Auto-advance would force the protocol into a pace the clinical work doesn’t respect. If you want to run 4 back-to-back sets with no decisions in between, set the count to 4 and start each one explicitly. That’s 4 spacebar taps, or 4 badge taps, with the between-sets card between each. Fast for an experienced practitioner. Right for the clinical work.

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Mid-session reconfigure

Open the EMDR toolbar button again at any point and the Configure modal opens — with your current configuration pre-loaded. Change anything: rate, stimulus, modality, sound, path, backdrop. Hit Apply changes (the primary button changes from “Start Set 1” when the Workspace is already running). The new configuration takes effect when the next set starts. The currently running set, if any, continues with its original configuration to avoid mid-set jumps.

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Pausing on network drop

If the connection drops mid-set, BLS pauses automatically on the client side. The client’s canvas stops moving, the audio stops, the haptic stops. When the connection recovers, BLS does not auto-resume. You have to explicitly restart with Space, the badge, or Start. This is deliberate — auto-resuming after a network event could restart stimulation while the client is in an unobserved emotional state. The video session itself reconnects normally; only the BLS stays paused.

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Ending the EMDR portion

Two ways to end:

1. Reach your configured set count and let the session arc card render naturally. Tap Done to close the Workspace.
2. Open the host panel and tap End EMDR at any point to close out early.

Closing the EMDR Workspace does not end the video call. You return to the regular video session with the toolbar and your video tiles. The call ends when you tap End in the call toolbar.

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What’s not a control

A few things you might look for and not find:

• No tempo ramp. The rate doesn’t gradually accelerate over a set — it runs at the configured rate the entire time. If you want acceleration, configure a slower rate for the first sets and a faster rate for later sets via mid-session reconfigure. The Auto-vary toggle adds gentle modulation within bounds but is not a ramp.
• No A/B preset switching. You can’t save two configurations and toggle between them. The Workspace remembers your last configuration, which is the most useful default for the next session.
• No client-facing controls. The client has no buttons. They watch the stimulus, hear the audio, and tell you their SUDS. Nothing on their screen is interactive during BLS.

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SUDS log

A View session log button in the host panel surfaces the SUDS list for the current session in a scrollable list — useful for reviewing earlier sets without ending. The list is the same data the Copy button on the session arc card uses.

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