Re:Mute Looping During EMDR

I just noticed another comment in your post that I hadn't responded to -- and that is the comment about "being there" -- yes, indeed, you've got it exactly right. The traumatic incidents cannot be resolved until all the parts of the self that had a piece of the trauma have "been there", or "looked through the eyes" (been ego invested in psychoanalytic terms) during the EMDR processing. They don't have to process all at the same time, however, as that would be overwhelming. One by one does it. In the case of DID, eventually the host too needs to "be there" during the processing for the experience to be owned and integrated into self and general knowledge held by the self. Again, talk to your therapist about whether it is time for you to "be there" during the processing, or whether it is better to let other parts of self "look through the eyes" first.

For readers unfamiliar with this frame of reference, I refer you to the ISSD website, www.issd.org, also to Watkins & Watkins Ego State book, and to my article on the use of EMDR with dissociative disorders on my website, at www.paulsenconsulting.com. I'm also presenting a workshop on Healing the Divided Self in San Francisco in November 2000. The workshop is co-sponsored by the EMDR Institute, and is intended to help meet the needs of EMDR therapists who encounter ego states or more serious dissociative conditions during EMDR processing. The workshop will address these issues of co-consciousness (parts of self "being there" or being present) and ego-investedness ("looking through the eyes")referred to in this discussion.

Sandra Paulsen Inobe, PhD
Walnut Creek California

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