EPISODE 2 (Part 1): Introducing EMDR

In today’s episode, we explore important considerations when introducing EMDR Therapy to your clients. Learn creative metaphors for explaining the complex process in a more client friendly way.
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What to have in mind when introducing EMDR Therapy to a client:
- Who are you speaking to?
- Age
- Level of education
- Client vs Community member
- Tailor your description to the individual you are presenting it to. Avoid flooding them with too much information.
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Recommendations for explaining EMDR Therapy
- Practice explaining EMDR to family, friends, colleagues, ect.
- Get comfortable with how to respond to common questions.
- Be prepared with several methods and levels of explanations to match the need of the population you’re speaking to.
- Have a strong understanding of the Adaptive Information Processing Model.
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Quotes from initial impressions of EMDR Therapy
- It’s important for us to connect back to our experiences in EMDR Therapy so that we can be sensitive to what our clients are experiencing coming into therapy.
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When to introduce EMDR Therapy to clients?
- Clients referred for EMDR Therapy or directly seeking EMDR Therapy- immediately talking about it= more directive approach.
- General referrals = less directive approach. Gently suggest EMDR Therapy as a possible modality to treat their symptoms.
- Presented as a very gradual approach. Start by talking about trauma and the brain and then building into more of the specific aspects of EMDR.
- Resource: TED Talk about the ACEs Study
- Trauma can be any adverse experience.
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Analogies for EMDR Therapy and AIP Model:
- Tailor your analogy to your client.
- Example 1: Think of the brain as a computer, adverse life experience as a bug in the computer, and rewiring or debugging as the treatment/reprocessing.
- Example 2: Symptoms as weeds and adverse life experiences as the root system.
- Example 3: REM cycle sleep to describe bilateral stimulation. With bilateral, we are replicating a process that your body naturally does everynight.
- Emaple 4 (Kids): Demonstrating it through play or art. For example, draw a picture that demonstrates the process or act it out with dolls or sandtray figures.
- Example 5: When we eat good food, our digestive systems works well. If something enters our body that is toxic, our digestive system has a negative response. Consider the adverse experience as the toxin and our brain is the digestive system. EMDR Therapy supports the digestion of the toxic.
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Providing Resources to Clients:
- Have a tool box of strong legitimate resources to provide to clients when they are first beginning the process.
- Caution against clients independently searching google about EMDR Therapy. Also, help direct your client to legitimate resources that provide sound information.
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How to address clients that previously received EMDR Therapy:
- Ask questions to make sure that you and the client are talking about the same thing.
- Do not assume that they experienced well practiced EMDR Therapy.
- Even if the client has reprocessed memories with another therapist, start back to phase 1. This will ensure that the client as been well resourced and prepared.
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Recorded Explanation of Adaptive Information Processing Model
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Live Demonstration provided as a mini episode following this episode
crystal
What is the name of the ted talk you referenced on this podcast?