The EMDR Podcast Thomas Zimmerman

The full text of this episode is available on the EMDR Podcast here: https://emdrpodcast.com/2023/12/13/lettingthingsgo/

The script for the videotape approach mentioned in the podcast is here:
https://emdrthirdweekend.com/posts/videotape-approach-script-with-complex-trauma-phases-three-and-four

A child's toy metaphor for the need to adjust your interventions to the nervous system you are working with.

When a SUDS of One, Two, or Three May Not be Ecological




You are technically correct, quoting Dr. Shapiro in EMDR Therapy when you say that a SUDs of one can be ecological if it “sounds right.” Shapiro's example of an Uncle who died. Shapiro worked with really healthy people and what’s in a one with her clients may be different than what’s in a one or a two with clients with really complex trauma. With really healthy people, you can go to installation if the SUDs is a one if it “sounds right” and the debris will likely get cleared up in Phases Five and Six.

You may be tempted to say that because I’m working with a complex client, a two is pretty good. Especially if we are starting at an eight to ten SUDs. And it is. Yes, we don’t want to make the perfect the enemy of the good.

However, a lot can be hiding in that one or two with a client with complex trauma.

If I had $5 every time the client said that the SUDs was a one, two, or three and it wasn’t going to go lower and it immediately went lower once they noticed it, I’d be able to go on a nice vacation. Out of the country. It’s simply good practice to identify what makes it that one, two, or three and ask the client to notice it a few rounds. And you know what happens, 97%+ of the time? It goes lower within a few sets of the client saying that it isn’t going to go lower. And yes, there are ways to do this respectfully what the client says to you, but also lets them fully and adaptively resolve that memory.

Really good things happen when clients fully and adaptive resolve memories. Generalization occurs. Installation isn’t junky. Body scan isn’t leaving debris. A one or a two may also be an ember that may ignite other things between sessions.

Don’t want to run the marathon and then sit in the lawn chair within sight of the finish line. If we can, finish it. Get your time. Get that race in the books. Whatever it is that makes it a one, two, or three, or whatever it is that makes the Validity of Cognition a five or six, notice that and it is highly to movie in a positive direction… unless it’s about something in the future or about other things from the past. That’s not your target. We’re in the business of resolving memories, not whole themes all at once and we don’t work in the past and the future at the same time. We have the future prong and future template for that.

What is it that makes it a two? Notice that. If it doesn’t go lower, that’s okay. But it’s also okay to notice whatever that two is a few rounds before you assume that it’s good enough for this client on this day.

You May Do the Least Reprocessing with the Clients Who Need it the Most

Full text of this episode is at:

https://emdrpodcast.com/2023/11/29/parts-work-is-central-to-emdr-therapy/

• The Impulse to Want to Avoid Causing Harm

• Working with Trauma is Like Working with Lava

• Confessions about Difficult Sessions

• Most Basic Training Programs Can’t Train You to Work Effectively with Severely Complex Trauma in EMDR, You Will Need to Learn the Nuances of this On Your Own, But There is an Enormous Amount of Help Out There

• Normalizing Mistakes and Missteps

• The Real Risks of Not Doing Trauma Work with Clients

• We are the Only Professionals on the Planet that Can Do This… Whose Job it is to Do This

• It’s Like Everything Else… You Learn to Do This by Doing This

• The Really Good News About EMDR Therapy: It Breaks in a Very Limited Number of Places

• When Clients Struggle, There is Information in that Struggle

• You can Dip Your Toe into Every Phase of EMDR Therapy

• You will Develop More Trust in the Process

• You will Get Better at Intuiting when the Client is Stuck and Strategically and Effectively Intervening

• Not Everyone is Prepared to Do EMDR Therapy Right Now: We Can Help them Prepare