Treating dissociative disorders with EMDR: The progressive approach

After many early cautions about the potential dangers of using EMDR with individuals suffering from dissociative disorders, limited proposals have been offered for adapting EMDR procedures to this specific population. Based on these early cautions, EMDR is still considered by many clinicians as offering interventions that are limited to the treatment of traumatic memories in high functioning dissociative clients and only after a long preparation phase that depends on other treatment modalities. From this conceptualization, the use of EMDR is strongly limited and many survivors of severe traumatization are seen as unable to benefit from EMDR, if at all, only much later in the treatment process.

In this workshop, clinical case examples and video fragments will be used to illustrate interventions with EMDR for dissociative clients following the “Progressive Approach” (Gonzalez & Mosquera, 2012). Using this model, this workshop will demonstrate how EMDR clinicians can safely utilize a wide range of EMDR interventions from early in the preparatory phase of treatment for patents with dissociative disorders. Our aim is to provide a comprehensive model for applying EMDR therapy in the treatment of dissociative disorders, extending the AIP model to address the kinds of dysfunctionally stored information found in those with the most severe forms of traumatization and dissociative phobias. EMDR therapists will learn to integrate new interventions into their clinical work at different phases of treatment. In particular, they will learn to implement specific clinical interventions, based on ‘progressive protocols’ for dissociative disorders.

Conference

English

Dolores Mosquera

Mosquera, D. (2017, April). Treating dissociative disorders with EMDR: The progressive approach. Preconference presentation (Isabelle Meignant, Chair) at the 3rd EMDR Asia International Conference, Shanghai, China