The 8 Phases of EMDR Treatment Explained
8 Phases of EMDR Treatment Explained
Phase 1 - History Taking and Treatment Planning:
In this initial phase, the therapist gathers information about the client's history, current symptoms, and identifies specific traumatic memories or distressing experiences that will be the focus of the EMDR treatment.
The therapist also assesses the client's readiness for EMDR and develops a treatment plan tailored to the individual's needs.
Phase 2 - Preparation
In this preparation phase the clinician will prioritise and be forward thinking about your safety by assessing and ensuring you have all the skills to handle any emotional distress that should arise during the desensitisation stage.
This can be done in a variety of ways by equipping you with techniques that reduce stress and keep you grounded during and between sessions. This will become part of your treatment plan.
Phase 3 - Assessment
This is where you and the clinician will decide together and identify the disturbing memory to be targeted during the bilateral stimulation.
A series of questions will be asked you before starting the process, which includes negative and positive beliefs about yourself and then measuring the negative distress and the positive belief .
As well as what you experience in your body as a result of the negative emotion for example, tension or discomfort in a specific area of your physical anatomy.
Phase 4- Desensitisation
This is the stage where we commence sets of bilateral stimulation that are used for the reactivating of those blocked or frozen events/memories for bringing about the natural process of releasing the painful charge associated with those blocked memories of information, so that the brain can reprocess the disturbance, then be released and bring to an adaptive resolution.
Bilateral stimulation’s will continue until the targeted event is no longer distressing and feels neutral, then you will move to the next stage.
Bilateral stimulation refers to the rhythmic side-to-side pattern of external cues that can be visual, auditory, or tactile in nature.
Phase 5 - Installation
The main goal in this phase is to link the reprocessed event to positive self-assessment. Now that the targeted event is no longer distressing, you are asked to think once again of the positive belief you identified in Phase 3.
When desensitization is complete, installation begins. The client then associates and strengthens a positive belief with the target event until it feels completely true. Then, bilateral stimulation is used to install the link between the event and your positive belief about yourself.
Phase 6 - Body Scan
This is the final phase of accelerated reprocessing. While holding both the image of the distressing event and the positive belief, you are asked to mentally scan your body for residual tension or any other negative physical sensations.
If there is any lingering discomfort, additional sets of bilateral stimulation are done until that is no longer the case.
Phase 7 - Closure
The content of this phase depends on whether the session is deemed complete or incomplete when the allotted time is almost over. The clinician will leave sufficient time to close the session and give you instructions that are part of the protocol.
Should it be it is an incomplete session due to the time factor this material is left for the next session (hence, an “incomplete” session). You will be reminded to keep a specific log until your next session.
Phase 6 - Re-validation
Although this sounds like the last step, re-evaluation actually opens each session after the first. The clinician will do a follow-up, asking about your disturbance level as it relates to the memories that were processed in the last session.
If that session was incomplete (as explained in Phase 7), the processing begins again with Phase 4.
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