Lifting the burden of shame: Using EMDR resource installation to resolve a therapeutic impasse

With Meredith, what had seemed an insurmountable impasse using a standard PTSD protocol had become amenable to significant resolution when addressed with a non-standard protocol. The key to this approach was to install multiple positive resources without deliberately activating the distressing emotions and associations of a specific, disturbing memory or current stimuli. I have coined the phrase "EMDR resource installation" to describe this protocol. I have since used this approach with other challenging clients who have childhood histories of significant failures of attachment with their primary caregivers. In these cases, their histories and current functioning led me to conclude that their capacity for self-soothing and affect modulation was not yet developed to the point where they could tolerate directly targeting distressing memories using the standard EMDR protocol.

Book Section

English

Andrew M. Leeds

Leeds, A. M. (1998). Lifting the burden of shame: Using EMDR resource installation to resolve a therapeutic impasse. In P. Manfield (Ed.), Extending EMDR: A casebook of innovative applications (1st ed.) (pp. 256-281). New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Co