Havening with lateral eye movements
Add side-to-side eye movements to the touch sequence to deepen attentional interruption.
Key takeaways
- What it is: Add side-to-side eye movements to the touch sequence to deepen attentional interruption.
- Why it works: Lateral eye movements have their own proposed mechanism — borrowed from EMDR research — of activating orienting responses and increasing interhemispheric communication, which may reduce the vividness and emotional charge of imagery. Combined with havening touch, the eye movements occupy a different attentional channel simultaneously, making it harder for the brain to maintain a vivid stress loop. Both mechanisms are debated; the combined distraction effect on rumination is more straightforwardly supported.
- Evidence: Plausible mechanism, limited direct outcome data.
- Avoid: Turning the eye movements into a concentration exercise that itself becomes stressful — the gaze should be effortless and wandering, not drilled.
Why it works
Lateral eye movements have their own proposed mechanism — borrowed from EMDR research — of activating orienting responses and increasing interhemispheric communication, which may reduce the vividness and emotional charge of imagery. Combined with havening touch, the eye movements occupy a different attentional channel simultaneously, making it harder for the brain to maintain a vivid stress loop. Both mechanisms are debated; the combined distraction effect on rumination is more straightforwardly supported.
How to do it
- 1Begin arm or face havening strokes as described in those practices.
- 2While stroking, shift your gaze smoothly from left to right and back — about one cycle per second.
- 3Continue for 1–2 minutes without fixating on any one point.
- 4Keep the eye movements slow and easy; jerky or forced movements reduce the calming effect.
- 5Close your eyes briefly at the end and notice the felt sense before reopening.
What the evidence says
MechanisticEMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) does have a meaningful evidence base for trauma, though the specific role of eye movements versus other EMDR components is debated. Lateral eye movements alone show mixed evidence for reducing negative imagery in laboratory studies.
Honest caveat: Evidence for eye movements reducing imagery vividness is a laboratory finding; whether the same effect accounts for clinical benefit in EMDR or Havening protocols is not established. The Havening-specific combination has no independent RCT.
- — Andrade, Kavanagh & Baddeley (1997), eye movements and the vividness of imagery, Cognition & Emotion
Common mistake
Turning the eye movements into a concentration exercise that itself becomes stressful — the gaze should be effortless and wandering, not drilled.
IX Coach layers a slow timing cue for the eye movements onto the stroke sequence so you can run the full combination without having to count or manage pace yourself.
Practice this with IX Coach →