Re: Dr. Paulsen

The respondent above has correctly clarified that I am not diagnosing a dissociative disorder in this or any other questioner on this forum. I do think that any client/ questioner in this forum who has a great deal of fear and talks about big bags of pain should be in the most protective treatment possible. The most protective approach to EMDR, which the therapist has recommended to his/her client, necessitates the standard screening for dissociative disorders. The only bad outcomes I have ever heard of in EMDR occurs when clinicians skip this screening and proceed with EMDR on someone who subsequently is found to be quite dissociative. So when someone is as scared about using EMDR as Martha/Kathy has said she is, I'd want that person to be comfortably armed with the additional bit of information that will provide them the most protective treatment possible. It is part of my standard approach to talking about EMDR to remind all readers of the importance of that screening. Ultimately this approach protects alot of people. To repeat, however, I have no knowledge of whether Martha/Kathy or anyone else is dissociative or not and I made that clear in my original post.

Brian, in addition to the published studies and case reports, my own 9 years of doing EMDR with extremely anxious people, whether or not they are dissociative, tells me that recommending EMDR for anxiety conditions is appropriate and ethical. Further, it also brings up for me the question of whether it is ethical to refrain from offering a treatment that is likely to speed a person's recovery.

To Martha/Kathy: I hope you don't let this argument scare you. It's okay that we are arguing here - that's what this forum is for. This man, Brian, and the other respondent and I are all concerned that clients get the best and safest treatment -- we just have different ideas about what that best approach might be. You didn't do anything wrong by posting on this list, as far as I know, you are welcome to do so.

Replies:

Re: Dr. Paulsen, by Brian, 3/29/00 Re: Dr. Paulsen, by Sandra Paulsen, Ph.D., 3/30/00 Re: Dr. Paulsen, by Brian, 3/30/00 Re: Dr. Paulsen, by Sandra Paulsen, Ph.D., 3/30/00 Re: Dr. Paulsen, by an australian client, 4/2/00 Re: Dr. Paulsen, by , 4/3/00 Re: Dr. Paulsen, by Sandra Paulsen, Ph.D., 4/3/00

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