Setting up an EMDR session

When you tap EMDR in the call toolbar, the Configure modal opens on top of your video session with a live preview of what the client will see. Every control you change updates the preview canvas in real time and is shared to the client’s screen the moment they’re connected.

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Mode toggle — EMDR 2.0 vs Classic

Top of the modal, two pills. EMDR 2.0 — Beta is the default. Tap Classic to switch. Flipping the toggle resets every parameter to that mode’s defaults. If you’ve tweaked the rate or the sound and then flip modes, your tweaks are replaced — by design, so the mode swap is clean. The “Beta” tag on EMDR 2.0 signals that the protocol is research-grade and not yet formally adopted by EMDRIA. See The research behind EMDR.

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Rate

The slider runs from 0.3 Hz to 2.0 Hz. A “cap 2.0 Hz” label sits at the right edge. Useful reference points:

• 0.3–0.7 Hz — slow. Used in early Phase 2 testing or when a client reports visual overwhelm at higher rates.
• 1.0 Hz — Shapiro Classic baseline.
• 1.5 Hz — EMDR 2.0 default. Midpoint of the de Jongh / Matthijssen published 1.2–2.0 Hz range.
• 2.0 Hz — upper edge of clinical norm and of safety.

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Stimulus shape

Five options:

• Dot — Shapiro Classic default. Maximum clinical familiarity.
• Butterfly — EMDR 2.0 default. The EMDRIA-adjacent silhouette recognizable to EMDR-trained therapists.
• Flame — a soft warm shape some clients prefer to a sharper geometric.
• Star — a five-point shape with more visual texture.
• Square — a clean geometric for clients who prefer neutral over symbolic.

All shapes render at the same pixel size and color regardless of the choice. See Visual bilateral stimulation for sizing and color.

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Modalities

Three pill toggles — V (visual), A (audio), H (haptic). Tap to toggle on or off. At least one must be on at any time.

• V drives the canvas stimulus on the client’s device.
• A drives the synthesized sound preset, panning hard left↔right at the same rate as the visual.
• H drives the phone’s vibration motor on Android Chrome. iOS Safari doesn’t expose vibration to the browser; on iOS clients, haptic is silently skipped with no error shown.

EMDR 2.0 expects multimodal stimulation. Classic defaults to visual only.

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Audio

A row of eight sound presets — Sine, Triangle, Soft drum, Chime, Click, Woodblock, Alpha drum, Tick. All are synthesized live in the browser; nothing is downloaded. See Auditory bilateral stimulation for what each sound is and when to reach for it. Below the preset, two values: the carrier frequency (default 250 Hz, clamped 200–450 Hz) and the audio volume slider.

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Path

Six motion paths:

• Horizontal — classic left-right oscillation (default)
• Vertical — top to bottom
• Diag ↗ — bottom-left to top-right
• Diag ↘ — top-left to bottom-right
• Circle — continuous circular orbit
• Figure 8 — figure-eight loop

Horizontal is the default for both modes and the most clinically familiar. The other paths are options for clients who report habituation or visual fatigue on horizontal.

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Sets

Two steppers — set count and set duration.

• Set count — how many sets you plan to run before the session arc card closes the session. You can change this mid-session; the card respects the current count.
• Set duration — clamped to 20 to 40 seconds in 5-second increments. Default is 30 seconds.

The label above reads “4 × 30s” — 4 sets, 30 seconds each.

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Photo backdrop

A horizontal row of 16 thumbnails — 8 gradient scenes plus 8 photo backdrops. Tap to apply.

• Gradient scenes (no external fetch) — None, Indigo, Dark, Sunset, Forest, Ocean, Void, Warm
• Photo backdrops — Forest, Ocean, Mountain, Sky, Lavender, Dawn, Lake, Dunes

See Backgrounds and scenes for which to pick when.

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Stim size + Audio volume

Two sliders side by side.

• Stim size — 16 to 48 px. Default 32 px. The size of the stimulus on the client’s canvas, regardless of their screen size (the canvas itself scales to fill their viewport).
• Audio volume — 0 to 100%. Default 60%.

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Auto-vary toggle

Off by default. When on, the renderer applies small modulations to speed, size, and color brightness over the duration of a set — staying within clinical bounds at all times. Rationale: monotonous stimulation can let working memory habituate. Mild parameter variation keeps the dual-task engaging without leaving the clinical envelope. Engelhard / Littel working-memory taxation research is the backdrop.

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Dual-task prompts

EMDR 2.0 default is on, Classic default is off. When on, the running Workspace surfaces a sidebar with one of 15 dual-task prompts you read aloud during the set. See Dual-task prompts for the 15 prompts, the 5 categories, and how to switch between them mid-session.

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Footer — Cancel vs Start Set 1

Two buttons.

• Cancel — saves your configuration and closes the modal without starting. The next time you tap EMDR, your settings are pre-loaded.
• Start Set 1 — saves the configuration, closes the modal, and starts the first set. The Workspace transitions to the running state.

If the Workspace is already running and you open the modal mid-session, the Start Set 1 button changes to Apply changes — the running set inherits the new configuration the moment the next set begins.

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