emdr, introducing emdr, resources

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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Recorded Explanation of Adaptive Information Processing Model

  • Live Demonstration provided as a mini episode following this episode