If you’ve been practicing EMDR for any amount of time or if you are a client who has engaged /is engaging in EMDR therapy, you might have seen or experienced the Subjective Unit of Disturbance (SUD) go all the way down to a 1 or the Validity of Cognition (VoC) goes up to a 6.

… And those ratings stay there…

… There’s no sense of being stuck, things don’t feel overwhelming, but it feels… off? or right? to stop there…

What’s going on here?

This is referred to as an ecological rating. Essentially this means there is a small sense of disturbance that will remain and it “makes sense”. This is okay.

Let’s explore some possible reasons as to why this occasionally happens.

• A touch of vigilance is adaptive. For example, someone who experienced a physical assault may keep some elevated awareness of their surroundings and recognize that not all environments are safe. This isn’t because of unresolved trauma; rather, this may come from a place of discernment that helps them remain grounded and self-protective.
  
  
• The positive cognition doesn’t feel true yet OR the positive cognition isn’t meant to feel absolute. For example, the positive cognition “I’m safe now” may never feel like a 7 out of 7 on the VoC scale if there are external constraints in that person’s life that contribute to real risk (i.e., living as a BIPOC individual, current political events).
  
  
• Integration takes time. Sometimes the “leftover 1” will naturally clear out as time passes. While the brain might cognitively understand “I’m safe now”, the body needs a little bit more time to catch up as the client moves throughout their life with a new perspective.
  
  
• The memory may be linked to other unprocessed experiences. This may also be referred to as “feeder memories”. This may mean that there are additional memories or themes to be explored and are waiting their turn for reprocessing.

TL;DR
An ecological 1 isn’t a failure or something that needs to be fixed. Rather, it could be a sign that the EMDR process has reached a balanced endpoint for that moment. It respects the nervous system’s pace, the client’s values, and the reality of their lived experience.

Remember, in EMDR, the SUD and VoC guide us. The nervous system leads us. Sometimes that quiet, grounded “1” is the mind’s way of saying, “This feels complete for now.”

If you are curious to learn more about EMDR or are interested in beginning your EMDR therapy journey, please reach out to me via the Contact Me page on my website. You can also learn more about EMDR as well as additional EMDR therapists in your area by visiting the EMDR International Association’s website here.

Reminder: these blog posts are meant to be purely educational and/or entertainment tools and do NOT replace psychotherapy and/or other medically necessary treatments.