Profits from the benefit of structural dissociation on the application with EMDR for complex-traumatized clients

Clients with chronic and complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) caused by severe traumata in childhood, are often still treated inadequately, especially when they developed additional dissociative symptoms or a Dissociative Disorder. There is a current consensus about the need tomodify the EMDR standard protocol in the treatment of complex traumatized and dissociative clients. From the theoretical background of structural dissociation theory and Janet’s system of action systems, the therapist has not only to recognize clients’ deficits but also to address action tendencies in the client’s inner system that could ameliorate coping strategies in solving problems in daily life. With the help of bilateral stimulation, blending of parts of the personality containing different information can be promoted often resulting in remarkable changes in the behavior and resource activation. The main principles that need to be regarded treating complex and dissociative clients with bilateral stimulation will be explained and basic rules for treatment plans including the use of EMDR will be developed. English subtitled video examples demonstrate the proposed modification of the EMDR standard protocol and will be discussed in detail. I will present shortly recent research findings on autonomic nervous system alterations during EMDR. These results help to define special working mechanisms of our modified EMDR protocol in clients with dissociative disorders.

Conference

English

Helga Matthess

Matthess, H. (2007, June). Profits from the benefit of structural dissociation on the application with EMDR for complex-traumatized clients. Presentation at the 8th EMDR Europe Association Conference, Paris, France