Written by Dee Keller, Licensed Professional Counselor
📌 This article is part of Teleo's full EMDR support series. Start with the Overview of the 8 Phases, or read Phase 1, Phase 2, and Phases 3–7 first.
Phase 8: Reevaluation is the first thing that happens in every session after active processing begins. Before any new work starts, the clinician checks in: Did the work hold? What's shifted? What's still there?
This article walks through how to run an effective reevaluation with child clients and how Teleo makes the virtual process more collaborative and easier for kids to engage in. You'll find the Client Album is the most useful tool for this phase.
What is the Reevaluation Phase in EMDR?
Reevaluation happens in the first 5–10 minutes of every session following active processing. Before any new work begins, the clinician checks whether the previous target is still resolved, whether anything new has surfaced, and whether the child is ready to continue. For younger clients, this also involves a caregiver check-in to catch what kids can't yet name themselves.
In short, you're asking, "Did the work hold? What's new? What's next?"
✨ Therapeutic Benefit
Reevaluation keeps treatment from moving forward on assumptions. A target that felt complete may have unlocked something new and this phase is how you find out before the next round of processing begins
Using the Client Album for Reevaluation
The Client Album is the feature in Teleo that provides continuity, revisiting, and revaluation at your fingertips virtually.
For kids, opening the Client Album together at the start of a session is a tangible thread to their previous work: here's what we built, here's where we left off, and here's how far you've come. That sense of continuity is clinically meaningful and also logistically convenient.
💭New to the Client Album?
During sessions, clinicians can capture Snapshots of a client's work. These save automatically to their Client Record, which is at first only visible to the clinician. From there, the clinician can choose to "share" a snapshot to the Client Album. This feature makes it viewable by the client when they are live in their room. Once in the Client Album, the image becomes interactive: the client can write or color directly over it, making it a living part of the session rather than just a saved file.
Along the way, these EMDR worksheets are helpful to take snapshots of:
Your Life Roadmap — the client's target map
My Safe Place — their safe place resource
My Memory Snapshot—the target memory components
My Thoughts — positive and negative cognitions
What Phase 8 Looks Like in a Virtual Session:
Start with your usual welcome and a brief mood check-in with clients, such as these worksheets available in Teleo's Activity Bank:
Where Do I Feel?
Feelings Thermometer
Feelings Chart
Once you have a sense of their current state, launch the Client Album together.
From there, the reevaluation unfolds naturally:
Orient to previous work—return to previous snapshots, such as the My Memory Snapshot worksheet from the last processing session. Invite the child to look at it with you and add a new line: how does that memory feel now? This is your SUDS recheck done collaboratively, with the child's own previous words right in front of them.
Check the strength of their positive cognition—Remember what we decided was a true thought? Does that still feel true? These questions get at the strength of their VoC.
Assess what's next—depending on their SUDS and VoC, you may
Return to processing the same target if it's unfinished or is bringing up continued distress
Add a new target that came up to Your Life Roadmap
Strengthening their VoC or resources
Return to resourcing if new distress has surfaced that needs stabilization first.
⭐ Quick Tip
Ask the child to pick one thing from their album that feels most true right now. What they choose tells you a lot about where they are, both clinically and emotionally, before you've asked a single formal question.
What the Client Album Makes Possible in Phase 8
Whether a target is fully resolved or there's more work to do, the Client Album is what helps connect the dots from session to session.
When a target is fully resolved (SUDS = 0, VoC strong, body scan clear), name it out loud. Kids don't always register their own progress, and it can be helpful to reflect it back intentionally so they see it. Open My Roadmap that was saved in the Client Album, click the edit pencil, and invite the child to add a symbol, word, or image marking that target as complete. Then take a new Snapshot to capture that moment of progress. Each Snapshot becomes a concrete visual record of how far they've come.
When there's more work to do, the album keeps everyone oriented. Open or revisit the previously saved My Memory Snapshot Worksheet to add any significant new material that has surfaced between sessions.
From there, you may need to relaunch Teleo BLS to continue processing or return to a resourcing activity to stabilize before moving forward.
💡 Pro Tip
For younger children especially, what happens between sessions matters, and caregivers often notice shifts that kids don't understand or can verbalize. A brief caregiver check-in at the start of a session using Teleo's Talk Mode can surface important clinical information before you dive back into processing.
The Bigger Picture
EMDR is rarely a straight line. Clinicians will cycle through phases with clients, return to preparation when needed, and adjust targets as treatment evolves. Phase 8 isn't the end; it's a continuation point that connects what's been done to what comes next.
When client materials, resourcing tools, and target maps all live in one shared space, that pivot is easier as a clinician to help them return and reference their progress. When kids can see and even interact with their own growth, it offers kids a deeper way to understand their own growth.
📌 Read the full EMDR series: Overview of the 8 Phases · Phase 1 · Phase 2 · Phases 3–7
Have questions about using Teleo for EMDR? Share them in the Teleo Community!
We'd love to hear how you're using these tools in your work with clients!
✍🏼 Dee Keller, LPC, is a licensed therapist, Virginia Board-Approved Supervisor, and owner of Sunnyside Counseling, a hybrid therapy practice based in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dee specializes in anxiety and perfectionism as it shows up across girlhood, womanhood, and motherhood. She is dedicated to helping girls, teens, and women uncover their strengths, find balance, and step into their lives feeling more calm, present, and authentically themselves.
Learn more about Dee's work at sunnysidecville.com