Most clients respond to EMDR treatments with ease and surprising success, while others inexplicably become flooded, numb, sleepy, or blocked. Still others have symptoms that contraindicate the use of EMDR trauma processing, such as active addiction, recent sobriety, or self-destructive behavior. Faced with the EMDR client who cannot tolerate affect, who becomes overwhelmed by traumatic targets, who cannot stay grounded, manage self-destructive impulses, differentiate past and present experience, or create a Safe Place inside – is there any way that EMDR can be helpful?
The answer is “Yes.” Fortunately, the use of simple body-centered interventions drawn from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy that modulate autonomic arousal and address somatically-driven trauma responses can often make EMDR treatments accessible even for blocked, de-stabilized and dissociative clients.
This presentation will introduce a conceptual model for understanding how and when EMDR treatments can be effective even with dysregulated clients. Participants will be taught simple, body-centered interventions that can be woven into both trauma processing and Resource Development protocols.