EMDR and CBT interweave

Cognitive interweaves are strategic interventions, whose utilisation relies upon therapist recognition of their necessity at given times during the EMDR procedure, and their effective use requires skilled therapeutic judgement and the introduction of the appropriate clinicianled cognitive material in order to counteract the blocked processing. The use of cognitive interweaves therefore diverges from the established EMDR protocol by introducing therapist generated material rather than just following the clients spontaneously processed material. It will be argued in this presentation that, due to the divergence from the established EMDR protocol, the effective implementation of cognitive interweaves, requires the knowledge of additional therapeutic strategies, predominantly those used in Cognitive Behaviour Therapeutic (CBT) approaches, which may not be readily accessible to EMDR practitioners not trained in this approach. This presentation aims to bridge the gap between the traditionally 'too-heavily protected' territories of CBT and EMDR, by introducing some CBT strategies, such as 'Socratic Questioning (Padesky, 1993)' or the Cognitive 'Separation of the Past from the Present (Herbert & Wetrnore, 1999'), which might be usefully drawn on, in order to generate effective cognitive interweaves during the use of EMDR. Clinical examples from the presenter's work, as an UKCP Accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist and a Level 2 trained EMDR Practitioner, with clients suffering from complex PTSD, will be explored.

Conference

English

Claudia Herbert

Herbert, C. (2001, May). EMDR and CBT interweave. Presentation at the 2nd EMDR Europe Association Conference, London, England