Re:karen

I appreciate your instinct for caution with individuals who are fragile and/or dissociative. I know some people use slow bilateral stimulation, especially auditory, for soothing purposes and sometimes have good results. I'm worried about the other times. For fragile individuals and individuals hwo are highly dissociative, it is urgently important that an appropriate period of stabilization, securing of safety, self soothing and containment skills, ego strengthening, and more all be undertaken before doing EMDR. I include any use of bilateral stimulation in here if there are any of the red flags present that contraindicate proceeding with EMDR per Shapiro's book, either edition, which includes an appendix that outlines these red flags and is written by the Dissociaiton Task Force (including myself).

Think of it this way if you like. If a dissociative client is currently having nightmares and is suicidal, cutting, and anorexic, for example, they shouldn't use any form of bilateral stimulation until the safety and containment issues are addressed, and more (as outlined in my workshop on Dissociative Disorders). In REM sleep they are already having nightmares so we suspect that bilateral stimulation may be disturbing. BLS may erode dissociative barriers prematurely, before the groundwork has been laid.

Others without the red flags may benefit from BLS.

That's my take on it.

Sandra Paulsen Inobe, PhD
Fair Oaks, CA

Replies:

Re:bilateral stimulation , by karen, 09/09/02

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