Re: overcoming resistance

Well, yes and no, EMDR may or may not provide a breakthrough for you. I'll explain:

No, EMDR may not provide a breakthrough for you if, when the processing gets stuck on your defenses (and I predict it will), the therapist gets stuck too.

Yes, EMDR may provide a breakthrough for you if your therapist knows how to do some of the creative steps that clinicians find helps to bypass these stuck points. (There aren't research studies on these, but lots of clinical and anecdotal reports). Some of these creative steps may include: cognitive interweave as designed by Dr. Shapiro, using continuous auditory stimulation through the session, using developmental work according to the Kitchur model, or using ego state therapy in EMDR, as I've described in a published journal article. In this last solution, the defenses themselves are given a chance to speak to let the concerns they represent be known to the self, in combination with EMDR. Many clinicians using EMDR find this combination with ego state therapy to be very powerful in working through defenses. All these except the first, cognitive interweave, are variations from the original model. The existing research that has been published on EMDR is based on Shapiro's original model, not these variations.

I wish you well in your pursuits.

Replies:

Re: overcoming resistance, by CharlieL, 3/17/00

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