EMDR

What is EMDR Therapy?

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR) is a comprehensive, integrative psychotherapy approach. It contains elements of many effective psychotherapies in structured manner designed to maximize treatment effects. These include psychodynamic, cognitive behavioral, interpersonal, experiential, and body-centered therapies.

There are 8 distinct phases of EMDR Therapy

1. History and Treatment Planning ~ Discuss client's history and develop a treatment plan with attention to traumatic events to be reprocessed. Assess clients internal and external resources.

2. Preparation ~ Establish a therapeutic alliance. Explain EMDR therapy process and set expectations. Address clients concerns and questions.

3. Assessment ~ Identify the event to re-process, including images, beliefs, feelings, and sensations.

4. Desensitization ~ Begin eye movements while client thinks about the traumatic event.

5. Installation ~ Strengthen a positive belief that the client wants to associate with the target event until it feels completely true. 

6. Body scan ~ The client is asked to hold in mind, both the target event and the positive belief while scanning the body from head to toe during the eye-movements. Next, process any lingering disturbances from the body.

7. Closure ~ Assist client to return to state of calm in the present moment whether the reprocessing is complete, or not. 

8. Reevaluation ~ At the beginning of each new session, therapist and client will discuss the recently processed memories to ensure that the distress is still low and positive cognition is strong.  Future targets and directions for continued treatment are determined.

Early Trauma Protocol of EMDR

I am also trained to use a special EMDR protocol called the Early Trauma Protocol (ETP) developed by Katie O'Shea M.S. and Sandra Paulsen Ph. D.  I work with individuals who experienced childhood trauma, were abused and/or neglected in early childhood between the ages of birth to 3.

The Early Trauma Protocol focuses on the developmental stages of life from 0-3 years old. Attachment patterns (the way we bond and connect with others) are often developed in our first 2 years of living, reinforced from 2-12 years and reenacted from 12 years forward.

The early trauma approach in its basic form consists of the following phases.

1. Containment.

2. Safe State.

3. Resetting hardwired subcortical affective circuits .

4. Clearing trauma by time frame for temporal integration. 

Resources: When There Are No Words: Repairing Early Trauma and Neglect From the Attachment Period With EMDR Therapy By Sandra L Paulsen Ph.D. (Author, Illustrator), Katie O'Shea M.S.

Source: EMDR International Association https://www.emdria.org/