Free · Works offline · Your sessions stay on your device

I built an EMDR timer for my own sessions

I am a counselling psychologist and EMDR practitioner. I got tired of juggling a phone stopwatch and a set count I kept losing, so I built something small that handles it and then leaves me alone.

Open the timer Install it as an app

No account. No sign up. No cost. It opens and it works.

Your sessions stay on your deviceNo account, no sync, encrypted and PIN locked.

It works offlinePut it on your home screen and it runs with no connection at all.

A practitioner made itFor my own clinical work, not as a product.

Why I made it

The tracking was costing me attention I wanted on the client

During processing I am holding a lot at once. Where the client is. What just shifted. How long this set has run. Which set we are on. None of it is a crisis, but it is a constant tax on attention, payable at precisely the moment I would rather be paying attention to a person.

And then there is the bridge between sessions

What finally made me build it was incomplete processing. When a session ends before something has resolved, the next one opens with archaeology. Now I finish with the log already written and start the next one knowing exactly where we left off. That is the part that genuinely changed how my sessions run.

What it does

Three things during the session, one after

1

It times each set

Tap to start, tap to end. Big plain digits you can read across the room. Set a target and it counts down, then keeps counting up, because sets do not finish on cue. No sound, ever: I have firm views about apps that make noise in a therapy room.

2

It counts the sets

The set number stays on screen. No holding it in your head. No counting backwards afterwards and getting it wrong.

3

It catches what shifted

One line of note per set, plus quick tags for the negative cognition domains: defectiveness, responsibility, safety, control and belonging. Precisely the words that evaporate when you are in it. SUD and VoC are one tap each and none of it can stop you starting the next set.

4

Then it hands you the log

Sets, total processing time and the whole run. Copy it or download it, then paste it into your record. It is also the thing I read just before the next session with that client. I have written up how I time sets and what I actually write down, if that is useful.

  • Not an EMR and not a record system. It hands you text to paste into yours
  • Not a bilateral stimulation device. That is what I am building next
  • Not a medical device and no substitute for your training, supervision or judgement

Privacy

I cannot read your sessions and neither can anybody else

There is no account and no server holding your session notes. What you type is encrypted on your own device with a key derived from your PIN. I cannot read it, cannot recover it and have nothing to hand over if somebody asks me for it.

The flip side is real: forget your PIN and that is genuinely that. A back door for me is a back door for everybody, so there isn't one.

  • It locks when you step away and every time you open it
  • Delete one session or all of them, whenever you like
  • Anonymous page views. Anything beyond that is off unless you turn it on and nothing from inside a session, ever. Exactly what I count

Install it as an app

Worth thirty seconds of your time

It is a website, so you can just open it. But putting it on your home screen gives you an icon beside your other tools, no browser furniture in the way and it stops your browser quietly clearing your saved sessions. Browsers do that. They believe they are helping.

iPad or iPhone
In Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
Android
In Chrome, tap the menu, then Install app.
Mac or Windows
In Chrome or Edge, click the install icon in the address bar.
Open the timer

Install from there. Once it is done, it opens straight into the timer and you will not see this page again.

Questions I get asked

Is it actually free?

Yes and it stays free. If a paid bilateral stimulation module arrives later, nothing already here moves behind it.

What if I forget my PIN?

The data is gone, for you and for me equally. That is the direct cost of encrypting it with a key only you hold and for session material the trade sits the right way round. There is an encrypted backup if you want one.

Does it do bilateral stimulation?

Not yet. That is next. Leave your email below if you would like to know when it arrives.

Who are you?

Dr Richard Pomfret, a counselling psychologist and EMDR practitioner. I also build Navigate, nervous system regulation tools for anxiety, stress and trauma recovery. Small tools, honest about what they do not do, private by default.