EMDR therapy and physiology: Resurrecting Freud's 'Project for a scientific psychology'

Whilst ‘EMDR’ as a treatment technique (Phases 3-6) may be learned relatively easily, EMDR therapy as a complete system is much more difficult to master. Why is this? Well, not since psychoanalysis perhaps has a ‘system of therapy’ challenged us to recognize the importance, indeed the primacy, of unconscious physiological processes. There is a profound and widespread misunderstanding and misrepresentation of what psychoanalysis refers to. Few people realize that Freud ‘almost discovered’ the neuron and is credited as the first to describe the ‘synapse’ and the ‘axon’. He predicted the discovery of ‘neural networks’ and was also the first to demonstrate ‘neuroplasticity’ (by severing a live axon and recording that one of the dendrites then grew into a replacement axon). It is fascinating that neuroscientists are only just discovering Freud as the psychologists and psychiatrists have all but abandoned him. EMDR therapy includes the physiological stimulation of ‘free association’ through acceleration of the Orienting Response (‘repetitive re-orienting’). This risks exposing vulnerable patients to ‘flooding’, with the sudden ‘return of the repressed’ (affect associated with the memory of experiences of having felt or actually been threatened or overwhelmed). This can accentuate rather than attenuate problems, particularly for more severely traumatised patients, actually making things worse. It is vital, therefore, to understand how a change in the quantity of ‘state-specific’ disturbance can result in a sudden change in the quality of what the patient is experiencing and require a shift from re-processing to resourcing, to avoid further trauma. This presentation aims to educate EMDR therapists in regard to the physiological dimensions of EMDR therapy (‘stress’ and ‘network balance’), about the difference between ‘Startle’ (a level of autonomic arousal within the window of tolerance) and ‘Fight-Flight’ or ‘Fright-Faint’ (levels of autonomic arousal that are outside the window of tolerance). An understanding of these differences provides a rational basis for decisions about varying the standard protocol in different clinical scenarios. This can help therapists to prepare vulnerable patients for those ‘difficult situations’. Beginning with a review of the ‘Model’ (Adaptive Information Processing), it proceeds to elaborate both the psychological and physiological dimensions of the ‘Mechanism’ and finishes with practical and specific advice in regard to the ‘Method’ (the Standard Protocol) - how to determine what, when and why any variations may be required.

Conference

English

Darra Murphy

Murphy, D. (2018, June). EMDR therapy and physiology: Resurrecting Freud's 'Project for a scientific psychology'. Poster presented at the 19th EMDR Europe Conference, Strasbourg, France