The evidence, as a story
Traumalis didn’t appear from nowhere. It sits on a clear research lineage — from EMDR’s roots, through the imagery-competing-task discovery, to modern randomized trials.
Traumalis traces back to EMDR and a simple observation: when part of your attention is occupied during recall, a distressing memory can be stored differently. That idea—that working memory has limited room—is the thread running through everything that follows.
In 2009, Emily Holmes and colleagues showed that playing a visuospatial game like Tetris shortly after a distressing experience reduced later intrusive memories. This is the origin of the imagery-competing task intervention (ICTI) approach.
What began as a laboratory finding has since been tested in the real world. Randomized controlled trials—from preventing childbirth-related PTSD to supporting frontline healthcare staff during the COVID-19 pandemic—have extended the result to single, structured sessions.
Traumalis turns these findings into a structured, repeatable protocol a clinician can deliver in their own setting: a brief, self-guided, game-based session that activates similar neural pathways to EMDR, with no special certification required to administer it.
Appendix
Five peer-reviewed sources trace the lineage from the original imagery-competing-task work to modern randomized trials.
A randomised clinical trial delivering a digital imagery-competing task intervention to trauma-exposed health-care staff—evidence that the approach Traumalis is built on reduces intrusive memories at scale in a real-world clinical population.
Shows an AI-guided, self-administered digital intervention with physiological monitoring reduces intrusive memories after experimental trauma—directly supporting the digital, self-guided delivery model Traumalis uses.
A summary review tracing how the brief imagery-competing task intervention developed and where it applies in healthcare settings—the research lineage Traumalis translates into a deliverable protocol.
A multicentre, double-blind randomised controlled trial showing a single-session visuospatial task can prevent trauma-related PTSD—evidence that one structured session, as Traumalis delivers, can produce a lasting effect.
The origin of the imagery-competing-task approach: a visuospatial game played after an analogue trauma reduced later intrusive memories. This is the foundational finding Traumalis is built on.
For treatment centers & clinicians
A short, calm walkthrough — how it’s delivered, what your team sees, and how it fits the care you already provide.
