Healthcare workers spend their days caring for others. They navigate high-pressure decisions, emotionally demanding situations, and repeated exposure to distress. Yet the impact of these experiences does not always end when a shift is over.
Stress can accumulate. Difficult experiences can linger. And even when someone continues to show up, perform, and support others, their nervous system may still be carrying the weight of what they have been through.
So how can we better support the people who spend their lives supporting others?
Research exploring psychological interventions for healthcare workers offers encouraging insights into the potential role of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) in reducing psychological distress.
When Stress Stays with Us
Healthcare professionals regularly work in environments where stress is unavoidable. They may witness suffering, respond to emergencies, make difficult decisions, or face situations that challenge their sense of safety and control.
Not every difficult experience leads to trauma. But repeated exposure to stressful events, particularly without adequate opportunities for recovery, can affect emotional well-being and the body's response to stress.
The effects may show up as anxiety, irritability, difficulty sleeping, emotional exhaustion, or a persistent sense of being on edge. Sometimes, people struggle to explain why they feel overwhelmed. They simply know that something has changed.
This is an important distinction: understanding what happened is not always the same as resolving the way an experience continues to affect us.
Supporting recovery means looking beyond what people can articulate and considering how difficult experiences may continue to influence their thoughts, emotions, and physiological responses.
What does the research say about EMDR?
A 2024 systematic review by Sanz and colleagues examined psychological interventions designed to reduce distress among healthcare workers. The researchers reviewed 23 randomized controlled trials, exploring a range of therapeutic approaches, including Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR).
EMDR showed encouraging findings as an approach for reducing psychological distress. While the review examined several interventions and did not establish EMDR as superior to other treatments, its findings contribute to the growing interest in trauma-informed approaches to supporting people working under sustained pressure.
More research is needed to establish the effectiveness of specific interventions, including which approaches work best for different populations and circumstances.
Nevertheless, the findings highlight an important opportunity: evidence-based psychological support can play a role in helping healthcare professionals manage the emotional impact of demanding work.
How Does EMDR Work?
EMDR is an evidence-based psychotherapy that helps people process distressing memories and experiences.
It involves structured therapeutic procedures that include bilateral stimulation, such as guided eye movements or alternating taps. These procedures are used within a broader treatment process designed to help people work through experiences that continue to cause distress.
When difficult experiences remain unresolved, reminders of those experiences can sometimes trigger emotional or physical reactions long after the original event has passed. A situation in the present may activate feelings associated with something that happened in the past, even when a person knows intellectually that they are safe.
EMDR aims to help people process these experiences so that the memories become less distressing and have less influence on their present-day lives.
Importantly, EMDR is not about erasing memories or pretending difficult experiences never happened. It is about changing how those experiences are held and experienced, allowing people to relate to them with less distress.
Why the Nervous System Matters
Stress is not just a thought or a feeling. It also involves the body's physiological response to perceived demands or threats.
When the nervous system detects danger, it can activate responses designed to help us survive. These responses are useful in the moment. But sometimes, the body continues to react even after the immediate threat has passed.
For healthcare workers, this can become particularly challenging when there is little time between demanding shifts or difficult experiences. The expectation to keep functioning can leave limited space to recognize the impact of accumulated stress.
EMDR offers a way to address distress that goes beyond simply talking through an experience. It works with the way distressing memories are processed, while recognizing the connections between memory, emotion, thoughts, and bodily responses.
This does not mean every stress response requires EMDR. Different people need different kinds of support, and treatment should be matched to their experiences, needs, and clinical circumstances.
But it does reinforce the importance of approaches that recognize the relationship between what we experience and how our bodies continue to respond.
Support without having to explain everything
For many people working in high-pressure environments, finding time for support can be difficult. Others may feel uncomfortable discussing personal experiences, particularly when their professional roles require them to remain composed in challenging situations.
This can create a barrier to seeking help.
EMDR is delivered through different treatment formats, depending on the individual's needs and the clinical approach being used. Some structured EMDR-based group protocols are designed to support participants without requiring them to describe their experiences in detail to the group.
This distinction matters. Access to support does not always need to begin with telling the full story.
For individuals who are not ready to speak about what they have experienced, or who prefer a more private way of engaging with support, appropriately delivered EMDR-based approaches may offer another option.
These approaches are not interchangeable with every form of EMDR treatment, and suitability depends on the person, the protocol, and the support available.
Bringing EMDR into high-stress workplaces
The potential value of EMDR extends beyond traditional clinical settings. Research into psychological support for healthcare workers encourages organizations to consider how evidence-informed approaches can become more accessible to people facing sustained occupational stress.
At Shift Change, we bring EMDR-based support into high-stress environments through structured approaches designed to meet people where they are.
The SHIFT Method™ recognizes that stress and shock can affect the body and nervous system, influencing how people feel, respond, and move through their daily lives.
Our approach emphasizes accessible support that does not require participants to disclose or retell personal stories. Through structured, body-based EMDR tools, we aim to create opportunities for people to work with the effects of stress in a way that respects their privacy and the realities of their working lives.
For organizations, this offers another way to think about psychological well-being: not simply as something employees must manage individually, but as an important part of supporting the people who keep essential systems running.
While the research is still developing, the findings from Sanz and colleagues add to the conversation about how evidence-based psychological interventions, including EMDR, may help address distress among healthcare professionals.
Caring for the people who care for others
Healthcare workers should not have to wait until stress becomes overwhelming before accessing support.
Creating healthier workplaces means recognizing the cumulative impact of demanding experiences and making effective psychological care more accessible.
EMDR offers one evidence-based approach to processing distressing experiences. Although more research is needed to understand its specific effects among healthcare workers, emerging findings point to its potential as part of a broader approach to psychological support.
At Shift Change, we believe support should be accessible, respectful, and responsive to the way stress affects the whole person.
Because the people who care for others deserve support, too.
And when we create more opportunities for recovery, we help make it possible for people to continue doing meaningful work without carrying the full weight of every difficult experience alone.
Reference:
Sanz, S., Valiente, C., Espinosa, R., & Trucharte, A. (2024). Psychological Group Interventions for Reducing Distress Symptoms in Healthcare Workers: A Systematic Review. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 31(3), e2980.