Re:bls/das

Puffer,

You wrote:

"the goal of exposure therapy is to achieve symptom reduction, it is not to recover memories or to break down dissociative barriers"

I don't think that is the goal of emdr, either, when practiced by responsible clinicians. I also don't think there is any correlation between diagnosing a severe dissociative disorder (such as DID) and a tendency to take all client revelations as gospel truth. It is a grave error, and just plain silly, to think that a belief in client inerrancy is required for good therapy. I think the best therapists take client reported memories and dissociative phenomenon neutrally and concentrate on, as you say, symptom reduction.

As for the issue of whether memories are "recovered" or the client has reached some "comfort" level where they can safely articulate them, I'd like to make a comment. Much is said, and debated, about amnesiac barriers. Having had little experience with memory loss in my life, I don't know what's up. But, personally, and through observing others, I'd say cognitive barriers serve equally well to distort and hide material a client "needs" to have hidden. If one cannot get from 2 + 2 to 5 then it doesn't matter if, separately, you can recall each side of the equation. You are unable to recall the relationship or its signficance. Geesh, did I say 5... I meant 4, of course... blame Orwell.

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