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In the room you set the tempo with your own hand, and it’s right because it’s you. Remote, three things have to agree: what your client sees, what they hear, and what they feel. If the tone lags the dot, you’re no longer doing bilateral stimulation — you’re doing something else, and you can’t tell from your side of the screen. That’s the problem the EMDR Workspace is built around.

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The picture and the sound are the same value

Where the stimulus sits on its path, and which ear the tone is in, are the same number. It’s worked out once and used for both. There’s no second clock keeping the sound in step with the picture, because there’s nothing to keep in step — where the stimulus is is where the sound is. So the tone can’t slide away from the movement over a long set, and it can’t arrive a moment behind it. There’s no drift to accumulate.

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A paired phone joins the same beat

If your client pairs a phone, it doesn’t run its own rhythm alongside yours. It joins the one already running, so the taps land on the turns of the stimulus rather than near them. Two phones — one in each hand — hold opposite halves of the same rhythm. Neither phone knows about the other, and neither needs to: each works out its own half from the same beat, so left and right stay exactly half a turn apart for the whole set. To pair one, open Configure and turn on Client phone haptics. A card appears on your client’s screen and they point their phone’s camera at it — nothing to install on Android, a small Rivet companion on iPhone. Add a second phone issues a second code for the other hand. Your client is never shown the code itself, only the card to scan.

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Changing speed mid-set

Change the speed without stopping. The picture, the sound and any paired phone re-converge on the very next pass — you won’t hear the tone wander off the movement while the new pace settles, because there’s nothing to settle.
Speed moves in small steps during a set and stops at 2 movements per second. Published EMDR protocols sit below that, and faster flicker carries photosensitivity risk. The ceiling is there so you can move the control freely inside it without having to think about either. See Photosensitive epilepsy safety.

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When the connection degrades

A weak connection degrades video here the way it does anywhere, and Rivet won’t stop a set on your behalf — a set runs its own timer regardless of what the connection is doing. So if the picture stalls or the sound breaks up mid-set, stop the set yourself and get the connection back before you continue. A set you can’t observe isn’t a set you’re running.

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What reaches your client’s side

The scene and the movement, and their own camera. Not your speed control, not the readouts, not the prompts, not the ratings, and not the session curve — none of that crosses over. Nothing about the session is recorded, and nothing transcribes it.

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What sets don’t do on their own

A set ends on its own timer and then waits for you. The next one doesn’t start until you start it. That’s deliberate: the check-in between sets is the work, and a timer isn’t in a position to decide whether the next set should run, run slower, or not run at all.

Practitioner controls

Starting and stopping a set, adjusting speed mid-set, and why nothing auto-advances.

Auditory bilateral stimulation

The sound presets, the carrier tone, and headphones versus speakers.

Best practices for virtual EMDR

Client environment, browser window, headphones, and choosing a mode.