EMDR: The Relationship to Change in EMDR Therapy

State Change vs. Trait Change: What EMDR Really Heals

There’s a moment in nearly every EMDR process when something inside shifts. breath deepens, shoulders soften. The image or experience that once felt unbearable starts to lose its edge. The moment when the exhale happens and this is what we call a state change.

A state change is what happens when your nervous system moves from activation to regulation. It’s a temporary shift in how you feel right now. When we use therapeutic tools we can become a consumer of how we feel and shift towards ideal states such as feel calm or grounded. You might notice calm, lightness, or even a sense of relief. In EMDR therapy a state changes occurs when the body lets go of something it’s been holding, and you feel it.

These are important moments. They tell us the work is touching what needs to be touched, that the person's system is integrating something it couldn’t before. But these shifts are only the beginning.

What we are really after in EMDR is something deeper and something that endures beyond the session.

That’s what we call trait change.

A trait change is when the nervous system learns something new and begins to live from that new truth. It’s not just that you feel calm for a moment. It's that you are calmer in the world. It’s when you notice that the same situation that used to send you spiraling no longer does. It’s when the old beliefs such as I’m not safe, I’m not enough, I can’t trust anyone, begin to dissolve, and a quieter truth rises in their place: I’m okay. I can handle this. I am worthy of love and safety.

Trait change is what happens when healing becomes embodied.It’s the nervous system’s way of saying, I’ve learned this now. You don’t have to keep bracing.

This is what makes EMDR so powerful — it doesn’t just soothe your pain in the moment. It transforms the way your mind, body, and soul hold your history. It rewires the pathways that once organized your world around fear and replaces them with patterns of safety, connection, and possibility.

In other words:

State change is feeling better.Trait change is becoming different.

And that’s the true gift of EMDR. Int's ot just relief, but transformation.

With light and love,

Allison