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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Adjusting speed and volume during a set

You don’t have to stop a set to change the pace. While BLS is running, a small speed stepper and volume slider sit on your overlay — tap − or + to nudge the speed in small steps, or drag the volume slider. Both take effect immediately, with no restart and no gap in the set. The picture, the sound and any paired phone all re-converge on the next pass, so you won’t hear the tone wander off the movement while the new pace settles. See One movement, not three. The speed stepper stops at 2 movements per second. Published EMDR protocols sit below that, and faster flicker carries photosensitivity risk — which is the reason to trust the control rather than watch it. Move it freely inside the range; you can’t push past the ceiling from here any more than you can from the Configure modal.

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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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If the connection degrades mid-set

Stop the set yourself. A set runs its own timer regardless of what the connection is doing — Rivet will not stop it for you, and it will not restart it for you either. So if the video stalls, the audio breaks up, or you lose sight of your client’s face partway through a set, press Space or tap End set, get the connection back, and start the next set when you can see them again. Stimulation your client is receiving while you can’t observe them isn’t stimulation you’re running. This is the one place where the tool leans on you rather than on a rule. Deciding a connection has degraded far enough to interrupt a set is a clinical judgement, and a timer isn’t in a position to make it.

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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, and none of your side reaches theirs — not the speed control, not the readouts, not the prompts, not the ratings, not the session curve.
• No recording. There’s no recording of the session and nothing transcribes it.

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Sending a blink cue (Flash mode)

In Flash mode, there’s no moving stimulus to start or stop — instead a Flash button sits on your overlay. Tap it whenever you’re ready for the client to blink, and a gentle cue plays on their screen — the positive-focus text pulses softly and a quiet chime sounds. You’re running the blink sequence verbally; the button is only the signal. See Setting up an EMDR session for how to configure Flash mode.

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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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