Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy for children and family: Assessment and planning EMDR therapy for parents

In order for a child to recover from psychological symptoms or behavioral problems, a healthy parent-child relationship must exist. The relationship in which parents validate their child's negative emotions and somatic sensations is required to allow for the recovery or development of the child's emotional regulation, that is, the ability to manage one's fear and anxiety. The parent may have had dissociative ego states, when he/she cannot validate his/her child's negative emotions and somatic sensations even if he/she is rearing his/her child with enthusiasm. However, it is import to examine that the parent shows the normal social function (the "parent" is not "a patient') at the assessment and planning phases. The parent-child relationship can be recovered through the integration of the dissociative ego states in the parent who cannot manage the negative emotions and somatic sensations activated in the family relationship even if the parent maintains certain level of normal social function. This paper shows that using negative emotions and somatic sensations caused by a child's behaviors in the parent as the target of the EMDR therapy could be useful to deal with the parent's dissociative states.

Journal

Japanese

Mii Okawara

Okawara, M. (2017, May). [Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy for children and family: Assessment and planning EMDR therapy for parents]. Japanese Journal of EMDR Research and Practice, 9(1), 5-12. Japanese