Marketplace tool · Beta

EMDR – Bilateral stimulation

The moving dot, the tones and the vibration, inside the session you are already running — online in AlchelyMeeting, or in the consulting room on a board of its own. And the SUD of every set kept where the note gets written, not on a scrap of paper beside it.

Why a light bar in another tab does not do the job

Online, EMDR today means a second product: the call in one window and a bilateral-stimulation site in another. Share that site's screen and the dot stutters — a screen share is encoded at a low frame rate as soon as the connection is under load, and a dot that jumps is worse than no dot for following with the eyes. Send the patient the link instead and you cannot see whether it is running on their side.

And neither of them knows the session. The SUD that went 8, 6, 6, 4, 2, 0 across the sets — the curve that tells you whether reprocessing is working — ends up in your memory or on paper, and the note written afterwards has to guess it.

Here the stimulation is drawn on the patient's own device from the settings you send: smooth motion, a true left and right in their headphones, and every set recorded against the session it belongs to.

The tool, from the inside

One stimulation, wherever the patient is

The same controls run the set in an AlchelyMeeting call, on a board for the consulting room, and on a patient's phone at the other end of a link. What changes is only where the dot appears.

An AlchelyMeeting call during an EMDR set: on the therapist's screen, the video with the bilateral-stimulation panel beside it — the preview of what the patient sees, mode, speed, path, size, colour, controller vibration and the SUD scale — and the notice that the patient stopped the stimulation; on the patient's screen, the dot across the width of the call, the headphones hint and the Stop button
In the call

Everything happens on their screen, while you watch their eyes

Once adopted, EMDR sits in the AlchelyMeeting tools panel. On your screen it opens a panel beside the video, with a small preview of what your patient sees — the video stays in view, because you need to watch their eyes. On theirs the stimulus takes the width of the screen while a set is up, and the conversation carries on underneath.

Nothing is screen-shared. Your browser sends the settings; theirs draws the dot and generates the tones, so the motion stays smooth whatever the connection is doing. A counter keeps the passes of the current set and starts again with each new one, and if your updates stop reaching them, the panel says so.

The EMDR board in Alchely: where the patient sees the stimulus, set 1 ready with its pass counter and preview, and the stimulus settings — mode, speed, path, size, colour and controller vibration
In the consulting room

A board of its own, laid out for the work

EMDR is often done in person. Outside a call, the tool opens a board in a new tab: from a session, or from the dock on your home screen or on a patient's record, which starts a new in-person EMDR session with that patient and opens its board straight away.

First you choose where the patient sees the dot. On this screen: turn the laptop towards them and the dot fills it, with a small bar to pause and bring the controls back. On a second monitor: a window you drag to the screen facing them; the two windows talk inside your machine and nothing leaves it. On their device: a link, for a patient who is not in the room.

Then the set: its phase, a large pass counter, the preview, and large controls — start, pause, continue, new set, stop — with Space to start or pause. Finish saves whatever ratings are pending, stops the set on every screen and opens the session on its EMDR tab.

A session's EMDR tab in Alchely: the number of sets, the first and last SUD, the final VOC, the SUD and VOC charts set by set, and the table of sets with their passes, stimulation, SUD, VOC and time
The sets

SUD and VOC set by set, and the curve they draw

Pause a set and the panel asks for its rating: SUD from 0 to 10 for how disturbing the target still feels, VOC from 1 to 7 for how true the positive cognition feels, and a short note if you want one, up to 280 characters. You ask, the patient answers, you mark it — the patient's screen never shows a scale. Both are optional, and what you marked is saved on its own when you move on to the next set or finish, so a rating is never lost to a forgotten Save.

The session gets an EMDR tab: every set with its passes, the stimulation used, SUD, VOC, note and time; the first and last SUD, the final VOC, and two charts: SUD by set, where lower is better, and VOC by set, where higher is better. Ratings are kept on individual sessions only: in a couple or group session the stimulation works, and nothing is recorded.

The stimulus

Visual, auditory, tactile — or all three

The dot travels horizontally, diagonally up or down, or in an infinity loop, at 20 to 70 cycles a minute, with Slow, Medium and Fast presets at 28, 40 and 55. You choose its size and its colour — white, green, blue or yellow — and change the speed mid-set without the dot jumping.

Auditory mode plays a short tone in the left ear as the dot reaches the left edge and in the right ear at the right, generated on the patient's device in true stereo; their screen asks them to wear headphones. Tactile mode pulses the game controllers the patient has connected, on the same beat: one in each hand, or a single one held in both with its left and right motors alternating. Your panel says how many controllers their browser can drive. Vibration needs Chrome or Edge on a computer or on Android.

In the note

The sets reach the note, on your terms

A new template, EMDR 8 phases, follows the standard reprocessing protocol from history and preparation to re-evaluation, with a section for how SUD moved set by set. The existing EMDR template is left as it was.

If you have adopted Augmented Memory, drafting or reformatting the note adds the session's sets to the model's context as the authoritative SUD and VOC, with the notes anonymised. Without it — or if the check cannot be made — nothing about the sets reaches any model. The sets go with the session when it is erased; your export of a patient carries them in full, and the patient's own export from their portal carries the SUD and VOC numbers, never your notes.

Why use it

What changes when the stimulation lives inside the session

It is not that Alchely moves a dot: it is that the stimulation, the patient's stop and the ratings stop being three things in three places you have to hold together while you work.

Drawn on their device, not streamed

The settings travel and the pixels are drawn locally, so the dot moves smoothly and the tones keep their left and right. No screen share, no second product.

Their stop always works

A large button or the Escape key, on their side, at any moment. The set pauses where it was and you are told.

No flashing, ever

The dot glides in and out of each edge and never flashes or changes brightness; the speed is capped at 70 cycles a minute. A photosensitivity notice sits in your panel, and auditory mode is there when the eyes should rest.

The sets stay in the session

SUD and VOC set by set, and the curve they draw, in the session's EMDR tab — and in the note, if you want them there.

Online, in the room, or by link

In an AlchelyMeeting call, on this screen, on a monitor facing the patient, or on their phone while you talk on another platform.

Frequently asked questions

What does my patient need?

A browser. For the tones, headphones: the left and right are the whole point, and their screen asks for them. For vibration, a game controller with rumble connected to a computer or an Android device, in Chrome or Edge — one in each hand, or a single one held in both. If the browser blocks sound until it is touched, which Safari does, their screen offers an Enable sound button.

Does my patient need an account?

In a call they join AlchelyMeeting as they always do. With the board's link, no: no account, no camera and no microphone. They open it on their phone, tablet or computer and you keep talking by phone or on any other platform. The link only works on the session's day, and stops working if the session is cancelled.

Does it work with Zoom, Google Meet or Teams?

The panel beside the video exists only in AlchelyMeeting, where Alchely carries the settings itself. But the board's link works alongside any call: you talk on the platform you use, and your patient follows the dot from the link on their own device. A start or a stop takes up to about a second to reach them that way.

Can my patient stop the stimulation?

Always: with the Stop button on their screen or the Escape key. The set pauses on your side at the passes it had reached, and you are told the patient stopped it. If the board stops reaching their device for a few seconds, the set is taken down there too, so a stimulus is never left running without anyone in control of it.

Is it safe for patients who are sensitive to light?

The dot moves smoothly, slowing into each edge, and never flashes or changes brightness. The speed is capped at 70 cycles a minute, well below the flash rates photosensitivity guidance warns about. Your panel shows a notice before the first set, and if the patient has photosensitive epilepsy or visual discomfort, auditory mode runs the set with the tones alone. Whether to use it with a given patient is your clinical judgement.

What is recorded about each set?

Its number, the passes, the speed, the mode and whether vibration was on; the SUD and VOC if you marked them; and a short note if you wrote one. Only on individual sessions, and only once you have adopted the tool. The records belong to the session: erasing the session or the patient erases them.

Does AI see my sets?

Only if you have adopted Augmented Memory. Then, when a note is drafted or reformatted, the session's sets are added to the model's context as the authoritative SUD and VOC, with your notes anonymised. Without that adoption, or if Alchely cannot confirm it, nothing about the sets reaches any model. Don't write names or anything that identifies anyone in a set's note.

Can my patient get their data?

Yes. Your export of a patient lists each individual session's sets in full. The export a patient makes from their own portal lists the SUD and VOC of each set, without your notes.

Do I need a particular plan to use it?

EMDR is one of the Plus plan's tools, included at no extra cost, and it is in beta. You adopt it from the catalogue whenever you want and remove it the same way. Once adopted it appears in the AlchelyMeeting tools panel, in a session's tools, and in the docks on your home screen and on each individual patient's record.

It runs on the same platform as everything else

Add EMDR to your practice whenever you like — the call, the board and the sets in the same place as your notes.

Try it in your practice Read the setup guide